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IN 

S. 

"1 

I 

THE    MORMONS 


DISCOUESE 


DELIVERED  BEFORE 


THE    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY 


PENNSYLVANIA: 

MARCH  26,  18SO.      ' 

BY   THOMAS    L.    KANE. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
KING    &    BAIRD,    PRINTERS,    SANSOM    STREET. 

1850. 


bena 


DISCOUKSE. 


A  FEW  years  ago,  ascending  the  Upper  Mississippi  in 
the  Autumn,  when  its  waters  were  low,  I  was  compelled 
to  travel  by  land  past  the  region  of  the  Rapids.  My 
road  lay  through  the  Half-Breed  Tract,  a  fine  section  of 
Iowa,  which  the  unsettled  state  of  its  land-titles  had 
appropriated  as  a  sanctuary  for  coiners,  horse  thieves, 
and  other  outlaws.  I  had  left  my  steamer  at  Keokuk, 
at  the  foot  of  the  Lower  Fall,  to  hire  a  carriage,  and  to 
contend  for  some  fragments  of  a  dirty  meal  with  the 
swarming  flies,  the  only  scavengers  of  the  locality. 
From  this  place  to  where  the  deep  water  of  the  river 
returns,  my  eye  wearied  to  see  everywhere  sordid, 
vagabond  and  idle  settlers;  and  a  country  marred, 
without  being  improved,  by  their  careless  hands. 

I  was  descending  the  last  hillside  upon  my  journey, 
when  a  landscape  in  delightful  contrast  broke  upon  my 
view.  Half  encircled  by  a  bend  of  the  river,  a  beautiful 
city  lay  glittering  in  the  fresh  morning  sun ;  its  bright 
new  dwellings,  set  in  cool  green  gardens,  ranging  up 
around  a  stately  dome-shaped  hill,  which  was  crowned 
by  a  noble  marble  edifice,  whose  high  tapering  spire 
was  radiant  with  white  and  gold.  The  city  appeared  to 


cover  several  miles ;  and  beyond  it,  in  the  back  ground, 
there  rolled  off  a  fair  country,  chequered  by  the  careful 
lines  of  fruitful  husbandry.  The  unmistakeable  marks 
of  industry,  enterprise  and  educated  wealth,  every- 
where, made  the  scene  one  of  singular  and  most  striking 
beauty. 

It  was  a  natural  impulse  to  visit  this  inviting  region. 
I  procured  a  skiff,  and  rowing  across  the  river,  landed 
at  the  chief  wharf  of  the  city.  No  one  met  me  there. 
I  looked,  and  saw  no  one.  I  could  hear  no  one  move ; 
though  the  quiet  everywhere  was  such  that  I  heard  the 
flies  buzz,  and  the  water-ripples  break  against  the  shal- 
low of  the  beach.  I  walked  through  the  solitary  streets. 
The  town  lay  as  in  a  dream,  under  some  deadening  spell 
of  loneliness,  from  which  I  almost  feared  to  wake  it. 
For  plainly  it  had  not  slept  long.  There  was  no  grass 
growing  up  in  the  paved  ways.  Rains  had  not  en- 
tirely washed  away  the  prints  of  dusty  footsteps. 

Yet  I  went  about  unchecked.  I  went  into  empty  work- 
shops, rope  walks  and  smithies.  The  spinner's  wheel  was 
idle ;  the  carpenter  had  gone  from  his  work-bench  and 
shavings,  his  unfinished  sash  and  casing.  Fresh  bark  was 
in  the  tanner's  vat,  and  the  fresh-chopped  lightwood  stood 
piled  against  the  baker's  oven.  The  blacksmith's  shop 
was  cold;  but  his  coal  heap  and  ladling  pool  and  crooked 
water  horn  were  all  there,  as  if  he  had  just  gone  off  for 
a  holiday.  No  work  people  anywhere  looked  to  know  my 
errand.  If  I  went  into  the  gardens,  clinking  the  wicket- 


latch  loudly  after  me,  to  pull  the  marygolds,  heart's-ease 
and  lady-slippers,  and  draw  a  drink  with  the  water  sodden 
well-bucket  and  its  noisy  chain ;  or,  knocking  off  with 
my  stick  the  tall  heavy-headed  dahlias  and  sunflowers, 
hunted  over  the  beds  for  cucumbers  and  love-apples, — 
no  one  called  out  to  me  from  any  opened  window,  or 
dog  sprang  forward  to  bark  an  alarm.  I  could  have 
supposed  the  people  hidden  in  the  houses,  but  the  doors 
were  unfastened ;  and  when  at  last  I  timidly  entered 
them,  I  found  dead  ashes  white  upon  the  hearths,  and 
had  to  tread  a  tiptoe,  as  if  walking  down  the  aisle  of 
a  country  church,  to  avoid  rousing  irreverent  echoes 
from  the  naked  floors. 

On  the  outskirts  of  the  town  was  the  city  grave- 
yard. But  there  was  no  record  of  Plague  there,  nor 
did  it  in  anywise  differ  much  from  other  Protestant 
American  cemeteries.  Some  of  the  mounds  were  not 
long  sodded ;  some  of  the  stones  were  newly  set,  their 
dates  recent,  and  their  black  inscriptions  glossy  in  the 
mason's  hardly  dried  lettering  ink.  Beyond  the  grave- 
yard, out  in  the  fields,  I  saw,  in  one  spot  hard-by 
where  the  fruited  boughs  of  a  young  orchard  had  been 
roughly  torn  down,  the  still  smouldering  embers  of  a 
barbecue  fire,  that  had  been  constructed  of  rails  from 
the  fencing  round  it.  It  was  the  latest  sign  of  life 
there.  Fields  upon  fields  of  heavy-headed  yellow  grain 
lay  rotting  ungathered  upon  the  ground.  No  one  was 
at  hand  to  take  in  their  rich  harvest.  As  far  as 


6 

the  eye  could  reach,  they  stretched  away — they,  sleep- 
ing too  in  the  hazy  air  of  Autumn. 

Only  two  portions  of  the  city  seemed  to  suggest  the 
import  of  this  mysterious  solitude.  On  the  southern 
suburb,  the  houses  looking  out  upon  the  country 
showed,  by  their  splintered  woodwork  and  walls  bat- 
tered to  the  foundation,  that  they  had  lately  been  the 
mark  of  a  destructive  cannonade.  And  in  and  around 
the  splendid  Temple,  which  had  been  the  chief  object 
of  my  admiration,  armed  men  were  barracked,  sur- 
rounded by  their  stacks  of  musketry  and  pieces  of 
heavy  ordnance.  These  challenged  me  to  render  an 
account  of  myself,  and  why  I  had  had  the  temerity  to 
cross  the  water  without  a  written  permit  from  a  leader 
of  their  band. 

Though  these  men  were  generally  more  or  less  under 
the  influence  of  ardent  spirits ;  after  I  had  explained 
myself  as  a  passing  stranger,  they  seemed  anxious  to 
gain  my  good  opinion.  They  told  me  the  story  of  the 
Dead  City :  that  it  had  been  a  notable  manufacturing 
and  commercial  mart,  sheltering  over  20,000  persons ; 
that  they  had  waged  war  with  its  inhabitants  for  seve- 
ral years,  and  had  been  finally  successful  only  a  few 
days  before  my  visit,  in  an  action  fought  in  front  of  the 
ruined  suburb ;  after  which,  they  had  driven  them  forth 
at  the  point  of  the  sword.  The  defence,  they  said,  had 
been  obstinate,  but  gave  way  on  the  third  day's  bom- 
bardment. They  boasted  greatly  of  their  prowess,  espe- 


cially  in  this  Battle,  as  they  called  it;  but  I  discovered 
they  were  not  of  one  mind  as  to  certain  of  the  exploits 
that  had  distinguished  it;  one  of  which,  as  I  remember, 
was,  that  they  had  slain  a  father  and  his  son,  a  boy  of 
fifteen,  not  long  residents  of  the  fated  city,  whom  they 
admitted  to  have  borne  a  character  without  reproach. 
They  also  conducted  me  inside  the  massive  sculp- 
tured walls  of  the  curious  Temple,  in  which  they  said 
the  banished  inhabitants  were  accustomed  to  celebrate 
the  mystic  rites  of  an  unhallowed  worship.  They  par- 
ticularly pointed  out  to  me  certain  features  of  the  build- 
ing, which,  having  been  the  peculiar  objects  of  a  former 
superstitious  regard,  they  had  as  matter  of  duty  sedu- 
lously defiled  and  defaced.  The  reputed  sites  of  certain 
shrines  they  had  thus  particularly  noticed,  and  various 
sheltered  chambers,  in  one  of  which  was  a  deep  well, 
constructed  they  believed  with  a  dreadful  design.  Be- 
side these,  they  led  me  to  see  a  large  and  deep  chiselled 
marble  vase  or  basin,  supported  upon  twelve  oxen,  also 
of  marble,  and  of  the  size  of  life,  of  which  they  told 
some  romantic  stories.  They  said,  the  deluded  persons, 
most  of  whom  were  immigrants  from  a  great  distance, 
believed  their  Deity  countenanced  their  reception  here 
of  a  baptism  of  regeneration,  as  proxies  for  whomso- 
ever they  held  in  warm  affection  in  the  countries  from 
which  they  had  come  :  That  here  parents  "  went  into 
the  water"  for  their  lost  children,  children  for  their  pa- 
rents, widows  for  their  spouses,  and  young  persons  for 


8 

their  lovers :  That  thus  the  Great  Vase  came  to  be  for 
them  associated  with  all  dear  and  distant  memories, 
and  was  therefore  the  object,  of  all  others  in  the  build- 
ing, to  which  they  attached  the  greatest  degree  of  idola- 
trous affection.  On  this  account,  the  victors  had  so 
diligently  desecrated  it,  as  to  render  the  apartment  in 
which  it  was  contained  too  noisome  to  abide  in. 

They  permitted  me  also  to  ascend  into  the  steeple, 
to  see  where  it  had  been  lightning-struck  on  the  Sab- 
bath before;  and  to  look  out,  East  and  South,  on  wasted 
farms  like  those  I  had  seen  near  the  City,  extending 
till  they  were  lost  in  the  distance.  Here,  in  the  face 
of  the  pure  day,  close  to  the  scar  of  the  Divine  wrath 
left  by  the  thunderbolt,  were  fragments  of  food,  cruises 
of  liquor  and  broken,  drinking  vessels,  with  a  bass  drum 
and  a  steam-boat  signal  bell,  of  which  I  afterwards 
learned  the  use  with  pain. 

It  was  after  nightfall,  when  I  was  ready  to  cross  the 
river  on  my  return.  The  wind  had  freshened  since  the 
sunset ;  and  the  water  beating  roughly  into  my  little 
boat,  I  headed  higher  up  the  stream  than  the  point  I 
had  left  in  the  morning,  and  landed  where  a  faint  glim- 
mering light  invited  me  to  steer. 

Here,  among  the  dock  and  rushes,  sheltered  only  by 
the  darkness,  without  roof  between  them  and  the  sky, 
I  came  upon  a  crowd  of  several  hundred  human  crea- 


9 

tures,  whom  my  movements  roused  from  uneasy  slumber 
upon  the  ground. 

Passing  these  on  my  way  to  the  light,  I  found  it 
came  from  a  tallow  candle  in  a  paper  funnel-shade,  such 
as  is  used  by  street  venders  of  apples  and  pea-nuts,  and 
which  flaring  and  guttering  away  in  the  bleak  air  oft 
the  water,  shone  flickeringly  on  the  emaciated  features 
of  a  man  in  the  last  stage  of  a  bilious  remittent  fever. 
They  had  done  their  best  for  him.  Over  his  head 
was  something  like  a  tent,  made  of  a  sheet  or  two, 
and  he  rested  on  a  but  partially  ripped  open  old  straw 
mattress,  with  a  hair  sofa  cushion  under  his  head  for 
a  pillow.  His  gaping  jaw  and  glazing  eye  told  how 
short  a  time  he  would  monopolize  these  luxuries ;  though 
a  seemingly  bewildered  and  excited  person,  who  might 
have  been  his  wife,  seemed  to  find  hope  in  occasionally 
forcing  him  to  swallow  awkwardly  measured  sips  of  the 
tepid  river  water  from  a  burned  and  battered  bitter 
smelling  tin  coffee-pot.  Those  who  knew  better  had 
furnished  the  apothecary  he  needed — a  toothless  old 
bald-head,  whose  manner  had  the  repulsive  dullness  oi 
a  familiar  with  death  scenes.  He,  so  long  as  I  remained, 
mumbled  in  his  patient's  ear  a  monotonous  and  melan- 
choly prayer,  between  the  pauses  of  which  I  heard  the 
hiccup  and  sobbing  of  two  little  girls,  who  were  sitting 
up  on  a  piece  of  drift  wood  outside. 

Dreadful,  indeed,  was  the  suffering  of  these  forsaken 
beings.     Cowed  and  cramped  by  cold  and  sunburn,  al- 


10 

ternating  as  each  weary  day  and  night  dragged  on,  they 
were,  almost  all  of  them,  the  crippled  victims  of  dis- 
ease. They  were  there  because  they  had  no  homes, 
nor  hospital  nor  poor-house  nor  friends  to  offer  them 
any.  They  could  not  satisfy  the  feeble  cravings  of 
their  sick :  they  had  not  bread  to  quiet  the  fractious 
hunger  cries  of  their  children.  Mothers  and  babes, 
daughters  and  grandparents,  all  of  them  alike,  were 
bivouacked  in  tatters,  wanting  even  covering  to  com- 
fort those  whom  the  sick  shiver  of  fever  was  searching 
to  the  marrow. 

These  were  Mormons,  famishing,  in  Lee  county, 
Iowa,  in  the  fourth  week  of  the  month  of  September, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1846.  The  city, — it  was 
Nauvoo,  Illinois.  The  Mormons  were  the  owners  of 
that  city,  and  the  smiling  country  round.  And  those 
who  had  stopped  their  ploughs,  who  had  silenced  their 
hammers,  their  axes,  their  shuttles  and  their  workshop 
wheels;  those  who  had  put  out  their  fires,  who  had 
eaten  their  food,  spoiled  their  orchards,  and  trampled 
under  foot  their  thousands  of  acres  of  unharvested 
bread;  these, — were  the  keepers  of  their  dwellings, 
the  carousers  in  their  Temple, — whose  drunken  riot  in- 
sulted the  ears  of  their  dying. 

I  think  it  was  as  I  turned  from  the  wretched  night- 
watch  of  which  I  have  spoken,  that  I  first  listened  to 


11 

the  sounds  of  revel  of  a  party  of  the  guard  within  the 
city.  Above  the  distant  hum  of  the  voices  of  many, 
occasionally  rose  distinct  the  loud  oath-tainted  exclama- 
tion, and  the  falsely  intonated  scrap  of  vulgar  song ; — 
but  lest  this  requiem  should  go  unheeded,  every  now 
and  then,  when  their  boisterous  orgies  strove  to  attain  a 
sort  of  ecstatic  climax,  a  cruel  spirit  of  insulting  frolic 
carried  some  of  them  up  into  the  high  belfry  of  the 
Temple  steeple,  and  there,  with  the  wicked  childishness 
of  inebriates,  they  whooped,  and  shrieked,  and  beat  the 
drum  that  I  had  seen,  and  rang  in  charivaric  unison 
their  loud-tongued  steam-boat  bell. 

They  were,  all  told,  not  more  than  six  hundred  and 
forty  persons  who  were  thus  lying  on  the  river  flats. 
But  the  Mormons  in  Nauvoo  and  its  dependencies  had 
been  numbered  the  year  before  at  over  twenty  thousand. 
Where  were  they  ?  They  had  last  been  seen,  carrying 
in  mournful  trains  their  sick  and  wounded,  halt  and 
blind,  to  disappear  behind  the  western  horizon,  pursuing 
the  phantom  of  another  home.  Hardly  anything  else 
was  known  of  them :  and  people  asked  with  curiosity, 
What  had  been  their  fate — what  their  fortunes  ? 

I  purpose  making  these  questions  the  subject  of  my 
Lecture.  Since  the  expulsion  of  the  Mormons,  to  the 
present  date,  I  have  been  intimately  conversant  with 
the  details  of  their  history.  But  I  shall  invite  your 


12 

attention  most  particularly  to  an  account  of  what  hap- 
pened to  them  during  their  first  year  in  the  Wilderness ; 
because  at  this  time  more  than  any  other,  being  lost 
to  public  view,  they  were  the  subjects  of  fable  and  mis- 
conception. Happily,  it  was  during  this  period  I  my- 
self moved  with  them ;  and  earned,  at  dear  price,  as 
some  -among  you  are  aware,  my  right  to  speak  with 
authority  of  them  and  their  character,  their  trials, 
achievements  and  intentions. 

The  party  encountered  by  me  at  the  river  shore  were 
the  last  of  the  Mormons  that  left  the  city.  They  had  all 
of  them  engaged  the  year  before,  that  they  would  vacate 
their  homes,  and  seek  some  other  place  of  refuge.  It 
had  been  the  condition  of  a  truce  between  them  and 
their  assailants ;  and  as  an  earnest  of  their  good  faith, 
the  chief  elders  and  some  others  of  obnoxious  standing, 
with  their  families,  were  to  set  out  for  the  West  in  the 
Spring  of  1846.  It  had  been  stipulated  in  return,  that 
the  rest  of  the  Mormons  might  remain  behind  in  the 
peaceful  enjoyment  of  their  Illinois  abode,  until  their 
leaders,  with  their  exploring  party,  could  with  all  dili- 
gence select  for  them  a  new  place  of  settlement  beyond 
the  Kocky  Mountains,  in  California,  or  elsewhere,  and 
until  they  had  opportunity  to  dispose  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage of  the  property  which  they  were  then  to  leave. 

Some  renewed  symptoms  of  hostile  feeling  had,  how- 
ever, determined  the  pioneer  party  to  begin  their  work 


13 

before  the  Spring.  It  was,  of  course,  anticipated  that 
this  would  be  a  perilous  service ;  but  it  was  regarded  as 
a  matter  of  self-denying  duty.  The  ardor  and  emulation 
of  many,  particularly  the  devout  and  the  young,  were 
stimulated  by  the  difficulties  it  involved;  and  the 
ranks  of  the  party  were  therefore  filled  up  with  volun- 
teers from  among  the  most  effective  and  responsible 
members  of  the  sect.  They  began  their  march  in  mid- 
winter ;  and  by  the  beginning  of  February,  nearly  all 
of  them  were  on  the  road,  many  of  their  wagons  hav- 
ing crossed  the  Mississippi  on  the  ice. 

Under  the  most  favoring  circumstances,  an  expedi- 
tion of  this  sort,  undertaken  at  such  a  season  of  the 
year,  could  scarcely  fail  to  be  disastrous.*  But  the 
pioneer  company  had  to  set  out  in  haste,  and  were  very 
imperfectly  supplied  with  necessaries.  The  cold  was 
intense.  They  moved  in  the  teeth  of  keen-edged  north- 
west winds,  such  as  sweep  down  the  Iowa  peninsula  from 
the  ice-bound  regions  of  the  timber-shaded  Slave  Lake 
and  Lake  of  the  Woods :  on  the  Bald  Prairie  there, 
nothing  above  the  dead  grass  breaks  their  free  course 
over  the  hard  rolled  hills.  Even  along  the  scattered 
water  courses,  where  they  broke  the  thick  ice  to  give 
their  cattle  drink,  the  annual  autumn  fires  had  left  little 
wood  of  value.  The  party,  therefore,  often  wanted  for 
good  camp  fires,  the  first  luxury  of  all  travellers ;  but 

*  Nine  children  were  born  the  first  night  the  women  camped  out. 

"SUGAR  CREEK,"  Feb.  5. 


14 

to  men  insufficiently  furnished  with  tents  and  other 
appliances  of  shelter,  almost  an  essential  to  life.  After 
days  of  fatigue,  their  nights  were  often  passed  in  rest- 
less efforts  to  save  themselves  from  freezing.  Their  stock 
of  food  also  proved  inadequate ;  and  as  their  systems 
became  impoverished,  their  suffering  from  cold  increased. 

Sickened  with  catarrhal  affections,  manacled  by  the 
fetters  of  dreadfully  acute  rheumatisms,  some  contrived 
for  a-while  to  get  over  the  shortening  day's  march,  and 
drag  along  some  others.  But  the  sign  of  an  impaired 
circulation  soon  began  to  show  itself  in  the  liability 
of  all  to  be  dreadfully  frost-bitten.  The  hardiest  and 
strongest  became  helplessly  crippled.  About  the  same 
time,  the  strength  of  their  beasts  of  draught  began 
to  fail.  The  small  supply  of  provender  they  could  carry 
with  them  had  given  out.  The  winter-bleached  prairie 
straw  proved  devoid  of  nourishment ;  and  they  could 
only  keep  them  from  starving  by  seeking  for  the  browse, 
as  it  is  called,  or  green  bark  and  tender  buds  and 
branches,  of  the  cotton-wood  and  other  stinted  growths 
of  the  hollows. 

To  return  to  Nauvoo  was  apparently  the  only  escape; 
but  this  would  have  been  to  give  occasion  for  fresh  mis- 
trust, and  so  to  bring  new  trouble  to  those  they  had 
left  there  behind  them.  They  resolved  at  least  to 
hold  their  ground,  and  to  advance  as  they  might,  were 
it  only  by  limping  through  the  deep  snows  a  few  slow 
miles  a  day.  They  found  a  sort  of  comfort  in  compar- 


15 

ing  themselves  to  the  Exiles  of  Siberia,*  and  sought 
cheerfulness  in  earnest  prayings  for  the  Spring, — longed 
for  as  morning  by  the  tossing  sick. 

The  Spring  came  at  last.  It  overtook  them  in  the 
Sac  and  Fox  country,  still  on  the  naked  prairie,  not 
yet  half  way  over  the  trail  they  were  following  be- 
tween the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  rivers.  But  it 
brought  its  own  share  of  troubles  with  it.  The  months 
with  which  it  opened  proved  nearly  as  trying  as  the 
worst  of  winter. 

The  snow  and  sleet  and  rain,  which  fell  as  it  ap- 
peared to  them  without  intermission,  made  the  road 
over  the  rich  prairie  soil  as  impassable  as  one  vast  bog 
of  heavy  black  mud.  Sometimes  they  would  fasten  the 
horses  and  oxen  of  four  or  five  wagons  to  one,  and  at- 
tempt to  get  ahead  in  this  way,  taking  turns ;  but  at 
the  close  of  a  day  of  hard  toil  for  themselves  and  their 
cattle,  they  would  find  themselves  a  quarter  or  half  a 
mile  from  the  place  they  left  in  the  morning.  The 
heavy  rains  raised  all  the  water-courses :  the  most  trifling 
streams  were  impassable.  Wood  fit  for  bridging  was 
often  not  to  be  had,  and  in  such  cases  the  only  resource 
was  to  halt  for  the  freshets  to  subside, — a  matter  in  the 

*  One  of  the  company  having  a  copy  of  Mme.  Cottin's  Elizabeth,  it  was 
so  sought  after  that  some  read  it  from  the  wagons  by  moonlight.  They 
•were  materially  sustained,  too,  by  the  practice  of  psalmody,  "  keeping  up 
the  Songs  of  Zion,  and  passing  along  Doxologies  from  front  to  rear,  when 
the  breath  froze  on  their  eyelashes." 


16 

case  of  the  headwaters  of  the  Chariton,  for  instance,  of 
over  three  weeks'  delay. 

These  were  dreary  waitings  upon  Providence.  The 
most  spirited  and  sturdy  murmured  most  at  their  forced 
inactivity.  And  even  the  women,  whose  heroic  spirits 
had  been  proof  against  the  lowest  thermometric  fall, 
confessed  their  tempers  fluctuated  with  the  ceaseless 
variations  of  the  barometer.  They  complained,  too, 
that  the  health  of  their  children  suffered  more.  It  was 
the  fact,  that  the  open  winds  of  March  and  April  brought 
with  them  more  mortal  sickness  than  the  sharpest 
freezing  weather. 

The  frequent  burials  made  the  hardiest  sicken.  On 
the  soldier's  march,  it  is  matter  of  discipline,  that 
after  the  rattle  of  musketry  over  his  comrade's  grave, 
he  shall  tramp  it  to  the  music  of  some  careless  tune  in 
a  lively  quick-step.  But,  in  the  Mormon  camp,  the 
companion  who  lay  ill  and  gave  up  the  ghost  within 
view  of  all,  all  saw  as  he  lay  stretched  a  corpse,  and 
all  attended  to  his  last  resting-place.  It  was  a  sor- 
row then,  too,  of  itself  to  simple-hearted  people,  the 
deficient  pomps  of  their  imperfect  style  of  funeral. 
The  general  hopefulness  of  human, — including  Mormon 
— nature,  was  well  illustrated  by  the  fact,  that  the  most 
provident  were  found  unfurnished  with  undertaker's 
articles ;  so  that  bereaved  affection  was  driven  to  the 
most  melancholy  makeshifts. 

The  best  expedient  generally  was  to  cut  down  a  log 


17 

of  some  eight  or  nine  feet  long,  and  slitting  it  longitu- 
dinally, strip  off  its  dark  bark  in  two  half  cylinders. 
These,  placed  around  the  hody  of  the  deceased,  and 
bound  firmly  together  with  withes  made  of  the  albur- 
num, formed  a  rough  sort  of  tubular  coffin,  which  sur- 
viving relatives  and  friends,  with  a  little  show  of  black 
crape,  could  follow  with  its  enclosure  to  the  hole,  or 
bit  of  ditch,  dug  to  receive  it  in  the  wet  ground  of  the 
prairie.  They  grieved  to  lower  it  down  so  pocrly  clad, 
and  in  such  an  unheeded  grave.  It  was  hard, — was  it 
right? — thus  hurriedly  to  plunge  it  in  one  of  the  undis- 
tinguishable  waves  of  the  great  land  sea,  and  leave  it 
behind  them  there,  under  the  cold  north  rain,  aban- 
doned, to  be  forgotten  ?  They  had  no  tombstones,  nor 
could  they  find  rock  to  pile  the  monumental  cairn.  So, 
when  they  had  filled  up  the  grave,  and  over  it  prayed 
a  Miserere  prayer,  and  tried  to  sing  a  hopeful  psalm, 
their  last  office  was  to  seek  out  landmarks,  or  call  in 
the  surveyor  to  help  them  determine  the  bearings  of 
valley  bends,  headlands,  or  forks  and  angles  of  constant 
streams,  by  which  its  position  should  in  the  future  be 
remembered  and  recognized.  The  name  of  the  beloved 
person,  his  age,  the  date  of  his  death,  and  these  marks 
were  all  registered  with  care.  His  party  was  then  ready 
to  move  on.  Such  graves  mark  all  the  line  of  the  first 
years  of  Mormon  travel, — dispiriting  milestones  to  fail- 
ing stragglers  in  the  rear. 

It  is  an  error  to  estimate  largely  the  number  of  Mor- 


18 

mons  dead  of  starvation,  strictly  speaking.  Want 
developed  disease,  and  made  them  sink  under  fatigue, 
and  maladies  that  would  otherwise  have  proved  trifling. 
But  only  those  died  of  it  outright,  who  fell  in  out-of- 
the-way  places  that  the  hand  of  brotherhood  could  not 
reach.  Among  the  rest  no  such  thing  as  plenty  was 
known,  while  any  went  an  hungered.  If  but  a  part  of 
a  group  was  supplied  with  provision,  the  only  result 
was  that  the  whole  went  on  the  half  or  quarter  ration, 
according  to  the  sufficiency  that  there  was  among  them : 
and  this  so  ungrudgingly  and  contentedly,  that  till 
some  crisis  of  trial  to  their  strength,  they  were  them- 
selves unaware  that  their  health  was  sinking,  and  their 
vital  force  impaired. 

Hale  young  men  gave  up  their  own  provided  food 
and  shelter  to  the  old  and  helpless,  and  walked  their 
way  back  to  parts  of  the  frontier  states,  chiefly  Mis- 
souri and  Iowa,  where  they  were  not  recognized,  and 
hired  themselves  out  for  wages,  to  purchase  more. 
Others  were  sent  there,  to  exchange  for  meal  and  flour, 
or  wheat  and  corn,  the  table  and  bed  furniture,  and 
other  last  resources  of  personal  property  which  a  few 
had  still  retained. 

In  a  kindred  spirit  of  fraternal  forecast,  others  laid 
out  great  farms  in  the  wilds,  and  planted  in  them 
the  grain  saved  for  their  own  bread ;  that  there  might 
be  harvests  for  those  who  should  follow  them.  Two 
of  these,  in  the  Sac  and  Fox  country  and  beyond  it, 


19 

Garden  Grove  and  Mount  Pisgah,  included  within  their 
fences  about  two  miles  of  land  a-piece,  carefully  planted 
in  grain,  with  a  hamlet  of  comfortable  log  cabins  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  each. 

Through  all  this  the  pioneers  found  redeeming  com- 
fort in  the  thought,  that  their  own  suffering  was  the 
price  of  immunity  to  their  friends  at  home.  But  the 
arrival  of  spring  proved  this  a  delusion.  Before  the 
warm  weather  had  made  the  earth  dry  enough  for  easy 
travel,  messengers  came  in  from  Nauvoo  to  overtake 
the  party  with  fear-exaggerated  tales  of  outrage,  and  to 
urge  the  chief  men  to  hurry  back  to  the  city  that  they 
might  give  counsel  and  assistance  there.  The  enemy 
had  only  waited  till  the  emigrants  were  supposed  to  be 
gone  on  their  road  too  far  to  return  to  interfere  with 
them,  and  then  renewed  their  aggressions. 

The  Mormons  outside  Nauvoo  were  indeed  hard 
pressed ;  but  inside  the  city  they  maintained  themselves 
very  well  for  two  or  three  months  longer. 

Strange  to  say,  the  chief  part  of  this  respite  was  de- 
voted to  completing  the  structure  of  their  quaintly 
devised  but  beautiful  Temple.  Since  the  dispersion 
of  Jewry,  probably,  history  aifords  us  no  parallel  to  the 
attachment  of  the  Mormons  for  this  edifice.  Every  archi- 
tectural element,  every  most  fantastic  emblem  it  embo- 
died, was  associated,  for  them,  with  some  cherished 
feature  of  their  religion.  Its  erection  had  been  enjoined 
upon  them  as  a  most  sacred  duty :  they  were  proud  of 


20 

the  honor  it  conferred  upon  their  city,  when  it  grew  up 
in  its  splendour  to  become  the  chief  object  of  the  admi- 
ration of  strangers  upon  the  Upper  Mississippi.  Besides, 
they  had  built  it  as  a  labor  of  love ;  they  could  count 
up  to  half  a  million  the  value  of  their  tithings  and 
free-will  offerings  laid  upon  it.  Hardly  a  Mormon  woman 
had  not  given  up  to  it  some  trinket  or  pin-money  :  the 
poorest  Mormon  man  had  at  least  served  the  tenth  part 
of  his  year  on  its  walls ;  and  the  coarsest  artisan  could 
turn  to  it  with  something  of  the  ennobling  attachment 
of  an  artist  for  his  fair  creation.  Therefore,  though 
their  enemies  drove  on  them  ruthlessly,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  parrying  the  last  sword-thrust,  till  they 
had  completed  even  the  gilding  of  the  angel  and  trum- 
pet on  the  summit  of  its  lofty  spire.  As  a  closing 
work,  they  placed  on  the  entablature  of  the  front,  like 
a  baptismal  mark  on  the  forehead, 

THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  LORD  : 

BUILT  BY  THE  CHURCH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  OF  LATTER-DAY  SAINTS. 
HOLINESS  TO  THE  LORD  ! 

Then,  at  high  noon,  under  the  bright  sunshine  of 
May,  the  next  only  after  its  completion,  they  conse- 
crated it  to  divine  service.  There  was  a  carefully 
studied  ceremonial  for  the  occasion.  It  was  said  the 
high  elders  of  the  sect  travelled  furtively  from  the  Camp 
of  Israel  in  the  Wilderness  ;  and  throwing  off  ingenious 


21 

disguises,  appeared  in  their  own  robes  of  holy  office,  to 
give  it  splendour. 

For  that  one  day  the  Temple  stood  resplendent  in  all 
its  typical  glories  of  sun,  moon  and  stars,  and  other 
abounding  figured  and  lettered  signs,  hieroglyphs  and 
symbols :  but  that  day  only.  The  sacred  rites  of  con- 
secration ended,  the  work  of  removing  the  sacrosancta 
proceeded  with  the  rapidity  of  magic.  It  went  on 
through  the  night ;  and  when  the  morning  of  the  next 
day  dawned,  all  the  ornaments  and  furniture,  every- 
thing that  could  provoke  a  sneer,  had  been  carried  off; 
and  except  some  fixtures  that  would  not  bear  removal, 
the  building  was  dismantled  to  the  bare  walls. 

It  was  this  day  saw  the  departure  of  the  last  elders, 
and  the  largest  band  that  moved  in  one  company  toge- 
ther. The  people  of  Iowa  have  told  me,  that  from 
morning  to  night  they  passed  westward  like  an  endless 
procession.  They  did  not  seem  greatly  out  of  heart, 
they  said ;  but,  at  the  top  of  every  hill  before  they  dis- 
appeared, were  to  be  seen  looking  back,  like  banished 
Moors,  on  their  abandoned  homes,  and  the  far-seen 
Temple  and  its  glittering  spire. 

After  this  consecration,  which  was  construed  to  indi- 
cate an  insincerity  on  the  part  of  the  Mormons  as  to 
their  stipulated  departure,  or  at  least  a  hope  of  return, 
their  foes  set  upon  them  with  renewed  bitterness.  As 
many  fled  as  were  at  all  prepared;  but  by  the  very  fact 
of  their  so  decreasing  the  already  diminished  forces  of 


22 

the  city's  defenders,  they  encouraged  the  enemy  to 
greater  boldness.  It  soon  became  apparent  that  nothing 
short  of  an  immediate  emigration  could  save  the  remnant. 

From  this  time  onward  the  energies  of  those  already 
on  the  road  were  engrossed  by  the  duty  of  providing 
for  the  fugitives  who  came  crowding  in  after  them.  At 
a  last  general  meeting  of  the  sect  in  Nauvoo,  there  had 
been  passed  an  unanimous  resolve  that  they  would  sus- 
tain one  another,  whatever  their  circumstances,  upon 
the  march ;  and  this,  though  made  in  view  of  no  such 
appalling  exigency,  they  now  with  one  accord  set  them- 
selves together  to  carry  out. 

Here  begins  the  touching  period  of  Mormon  history ; 
on  which  but  that  it  is  for  me  a  hackneyed  subject,  I 
should  be  glad  to  dwell,  were  it  only  for  the  proof  it  has 
afforded  of  the  strictly  material  value  to  communities  of 
an  active  common  faith,  and  its  happy  illustrations  of 
the  power  of  the  spirit  of  Christian  fraternity  to  relieve 
the  deepest  of  human  suffering.  I  may  assume  that  it 
has  already  fully  claimed  the  public  sympathy. 

Delayed  thus  by  their  own  wants,  and  by  their  exer- 
tions to  provide  for  the  wants  of  others,  it  was  not  till 
the  month  of  June  that  the  advance  of  the  emigrant 
companies  arrived  at  the  Missouri. 

This  body  I  remember  I  had  to  join  there,  ascending 
the  river  for  the  purpose  from  Fort  Leavenworth,  which 
was  at  that  time  our  frontier  post.  The  fort  was  the 
interesting  rendezvous  of  the  Army  of  the  West,  and 


23 

the  head-quarters  of  its  gallant  chief,  Stephen  F.  Kear- 
ney, whose  guest  and  friend  I  account  it  my  honor  to 
have  been.  Many  as  were  the  reports  daily  received 
at  the  garrison  from  all  portions  of  the  Indian  territory, 
it  was  a  significant  fact,  how  little  authentic  intelligence 
was  to  be  obtained  concerning  the  Mormons.  Even  the 
region  in  which  they  were  to  be  sought  after,  was  a 
question  not  attempted  to  be  designated  with  accuracy, 
except  by  what  are  very  well  called  in  the  West, — 
Mormon  stories ;  none  of  which  bore  any  sifting.  One 
of  these  averred,  that  a  party  of  Mormons  in  spangled 
crimson  robes  of  office,  headed  by  one  in  black  velvet 
and  silver,  had  been  teaching  a  Jewish  pow-wow  to  the 
medicine  men  of  the  Sauks  and  Foxes.  Another  averred 
that  they  were  going  about  in  buffalo  robe  short  frocks, 
imitative  of  the  costume  of  Saint  John,  preaching  bap- 
tism and  the  instance  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  among 
the  loways.  To  believe  one  report,  ammunition  and 
whiskey  had  been  received  by  Indian  braves  at  the 
hands  of  an  elder  with  a  flowing  white  beard,  who 
spoke  Indian,  he  alleged,  because  he  had  the  gift  of 
tongues: — this,  as  far  North  as  the  country  of  the 
Yanketon  Sioux.  According  to  another  yet,  which 
professed  to  be  derived  officially  from  at  least  one  In- 
dian sub-agent,  the  Mormons  had  distributed  the  scarlet 
uniforms  of  H.  B.  M.'s  servants  among  the  Pottawata- 
mies,  and  had  carried  into  their  country  twelve  pieces 
of  brass  cannon,  which  were  counted  by  a  traveller  as 


24 

they  were  rafted  across  the  East  Fork  of  Grand  River, 
one  of  the  northern  tributaries  of  the  Missouri.  The 
narrators  of  these  pleasant  stories  were  at  variance  as  to 
the  position  of  the  Mormons,  by  a  couple  of  hundred 
leagues ;  but  they  harmonized  in  the  warning,  that  to 
seek  certain  of  the  leading  camps  would  be  to  meet  the 
treatment  of  a  spy. 

Almost  at  the  outset  of  my  journey  from  Fort  Lea- 
venworth,  while  yet  upon  the  edge  of  the  Indian  bor- 
der, I  had  the  good  fortune  to  fall  in  with  a  couple  of 
thin-necked  sallow  persons,  in  patchwork  pantaloons, 
conducting  Northward  wagon-loads  of  Indian  corn, 
which  they  had  obtained,  according  to  their  own  ac- 
count, in  barter  from  a  squatter  for  some  silver  spoons 
and  a  feather  bed.  Their  character  was  disclosed  by 
their  eager  request  of  a  bite  from  my  wallet ;  in  default 
of  which,  after  a  somewhat  superfluous  scriptural  grace, 
they  made  an  imperfect  lunch  before  me  off  the  softer 
of  their  corn  ears,  eating  the  grains  as  horses  do,  from 
the  cob.  I  took  their  advice  to  follow  up  the  Mis- 
souri; somewhere  not  far  from  which,  in  the  Potta- 
watamie  country,  they  were  sure  I  would  encounter  one 
of  their  advancing  companies. 

I  had  bad  weather  on  the  road.  Excessive  heats, 
varied  only  by  repeated  drenching  thunder  squalls, 
knocked  up  my  horse,  my  only  travelling  companion ; 
and  otherwise  added  to  the  ordinary  hardships  of  a 
kind  of  life  to  which  I  was  as  yet  little  accustomed  I 


25 

suffered  a  sense  of  discomfort,  therefore,  amounting  to 
physical  nostalgia,  and  was,  in  fact,  wearied  to  death  of 
the  staring  silence  of  the  prairie,  before  I  came  upon 
the  objects  of  my  search. 

They  were  collected  a  little  distance  above  the  Pot- 
tawatamie  Agency.  The  hills  of  the  "  High  Prairie" 
crowding  in  upon  the  river  at  this  point,  and  overhang- 
ing it,  appear  of  an  unusual  and  commanding  elevation. 
They  are  called  the  Council  Bluffs ;  a  name  given  them 
with  another  meaning,  but  well  illustrated  by  the  pic- 
turesque Congress  of  their  high  and  mighty  summits. 
To  the  south  of  them,  a  rich  alluvial  flat  of  considera- 
ble width  follows  down  the  Missouri,  some  eight  miles, 
to  where  it  is  lost  from  view  at  a  turn,  which  forms  the 
site  of  the  Indian  town  of  Point  aux  Poules.  Across 
the  river  from  this  spot  the  hills  recur  again,  but  are 
skirted  at  their  base  by  as  much  low  ground  as  suffices 
for  a  landing. 

This  landing,  and  the  large  flat  or  bottom  on  the 
east  side  of  the  river,  were  crowded  with  covered 
carts  and  wagons ;  and  each  one  of  the  Council  Bluff 
hills  opposite  was  crowned  with  its  own  great  camp, 
gay  with  bright  white  canvas,  and  alive  with  the 
busy  stir  of  swarming  occupants.  In  the  clear  blue 
morning  air,  the  smoke  streamed  up  from  more  than 
a  thousand  cooking  fires.  Countless  roads  and  by- 
paths checkered  all  manner  of  geometric  figures  on 
the  hillsides.  Herd  boys  were  dozing  upon  the  slopes ; 


26 

sheep  and  horses,  cows  and  oxen,  were  feeding  around 
them,  and  other  herds  in  the  luxuriant  meadow  of 
the  then  swollen  river.  From  a  single  point  I  counted 
four  thousand  head  of  cattle  in  view  at  one  time. 
As  I  approached  the  camps,  it  seemed  to  me  the  chil- 
dren there  were  to  prove  still  more  numerous.  Along 
a  little  creek  I  had  to  cross  were  women  in  greater  force 
than  blanchisseuses  upon  the  Seine,  washing  and  rinsing 
all  manner  of  white  muslins,  red  flannels  and  parti- 
colored calicoes,  and  hanging  them  to  bleach  upon  a 
greater  area  of  grass  and  bushes  than  we  can  display 
in  all  our  Washington  Square. 

Hastening  by  these,  I  saluted  a  group  of  noisy  boys, 
whose  purely  vernacular  cries  had  for  me  an  invincible 
home-savoring  attraction.  It  was  one  of  them,  a  bright 
faced  lad,  who,  hurrying  on  his  jacket  and  trowsers, 
fresh  from  bathing  in  the  creek,  first  assured  me  I  was 
at  my  right  destination.  He  was  a  mere  child ;  but 
he  told  me  of  his  own  accord  where  I  had  best  go 
seek  my  welcome,  and  took  my  horse's  bridle  to  help 
me  pass  a  morass,  the  bridge  over  which  he  alleged  to 
be  unsafe. 

There  was  something  joyous  for  me  in  my  free  ram- 
bles about  this  vast  body  of  pilgrims.  I  could  range 
the  wild  country  wherever  I  listed,  under  safeguard  of 
their  moving  host.  Not  only  in  the  main  camps  was 
all  stir  and  life,  but  in  every  direction,  it  seemed  to  me, 
I  could  follow  '  Mormon  Roads/  and  find  them  beaten 


27 

hard  and  even  dusty  by  the  tread  and  wear  of  the 
cattle  and  vehicles  of  emigrants  laboring  over  them. 
By  day,  I  would  overtake  and  pass,  one  after  another, 
what  amounted  to  an  army  train  of  them ;  and  at  night, 
if  I  encamped  at  the  places  where  the  timber  and  run- 
ning water  were  found  together,  I  was  almost  sure  to 
be  within  call  of  some  camp  or  other,  or  at  least  within 
sight  of  its  watch-fires.  Wherever  I  was  compelled  to 
tarry,  I  was  certain  to  find  shelter  and  hospitality,  scant, 
indeed,  but  never  stinted,  and  always  honest  and  kind. 
After  a  recent  unavoidable  association  with  the  border 
inhabitants  of  Western  Missouri  and  Iowa,  the  vile  scum 
which  our  own  society,  to  apply  the  words  of  an  admi- 
rable gentleman  and  eminent  divine,*  "  like  the  great 
ocean  washes  upon  its  frontier  shores,"  I  can  scarcely 
describe  the  gratification  I  felt  in  associating  again  with 
persons  who  were  almost  all  of  Eastern  American  ori- 
gin,— persons  of  refined  and  cleanly  habits  and  decent 
language, — and  in  observing  their  peculiar  and  interest- 
ing mode  of  life ;- — while  every  day  seemed  to  bring 
with  it  its  own  especial  incident,  fruitful  in  the  illustra- 
tion of  habits  and  character. 

It  was  during  the  period  of  which  I  have  just  spoken, 
that  the  Mormon  battalion  of  520  men  was  recruited 
and  marched  for  the  Pacific  Coast. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  Mexican  war,  the  Pre- 
sident considered  it  desirable  to  march  a  body  of  relia- 

*  Rev.  Dr.  Morton,  of  Philadelphia. 


28 

ble  infantry  to  California  at  as  early  a  period  as  practi- 
cable, and  the  known  hardihood  and  habits  of  discipline 
of  the  Mormons  were  supposed  peculiarly  to  fit  them 
for  this  service.  As  California  was  supposed  also  to  be 
their  ultimate  destination,  the  long  march  might  cost 
them  less  than  other  citizens.  They  were  accordingly 
invited  to  furnish  a  battalion  of  volunteers  early  in  the 
month  of  July. 

The  call  could  hardly  have  been  more  inconveniently 
timed.  The  young,  and  those  who  could  best  have 
been  spared,  were  then  away  from  the  main  body, 
either  with  pioneer  companies  in  the  van,  or,  their  faith 
unannounced,  seeking  work  and  food  about  the  north- 
western settlements,  to  support  them  till  the  return  of 
the  season  for  commencing  emigration.  The  force  was 
therefore  to  be  recruited  from  among  fathers  of  fami- 
lies, and  others  whose  presence  it  was  most  desirable  to 
retain. 

There  were  some,  too,  who  could  not  view  the  invi- 
tation without  jealousy.  They  had  twice  been  per- 
suaded by  (State)  Government  authorities  in  Illinois 
and  Missouri,  to  give  up  their  arms  on  some  special  ap- 
peals to  their  patriotic  confidence,  and  had  then  been 
left  to  the  malice  of  their  enemies.  And  now  they 
were  asked,  in  the  midst  of  the  Indian  country,  to  sur- 
render over  five  hundred  of  their  best  men  for  a  war 
march  of  thousands  of  miles  to  California,  without  the 


29 

hope  of  return  till  after  the  conquest  of  that  country. 
Could  they  view  such  a  proposition  with  favor  ? 

But  the  feeling  of  country  triumphed.  The  Union 
had  never  wronged  them :  "  Yon  shall  have  your  bat- 
talion at  once,  if  it  has  to  be  a  class  of  our  elders,"  said 
one,  himself  a  ruling  elder.  A  central  ( mass  meeting'  for 
Council,  some  harangues  at  the  more  remotely  scattered 
camps,  an  American  flag  brought  out  from  the  store- 
house of  things  rescued,  and  hoisted  to  the  top  of  a  tree 
mast — and,  in  three  days,  the  force  was  reported,  mus- 
tered, organized  and  ready  to  march. 

There  was  no  sentimental  affectation  at  their  leave- 
taking.  The  afternoon  before  was  appropriated  to  a 
farewell  ball ;  and  a  more  merry  dancing  rout  I  have 
never  seen,  though  the  company  went  without  refresh- 
ments, and  their  ball-room  was  of  the  most  primitive. 
It  was  the  custom,  whenever  the  larger  camps  rested  for 
a  few  days  together,  to  make  great  arbors,  or  Boweries, 
as  they  called  them,  of  poles  and  brush  and  wattling, 
as  places  of  shelter  for  their  meetings  of  devotion  or 
conference.  In  one  of  these,  where  the  ground  had 
been  trodden  firm  and  hard  by  the  worshippers  of  the 
popular  Father  Taylor's  precinct,  was  gathered  now  the 
mirth  and  beauty  of  the  Mormon  Israel. 

If  anything  told  the  Mormons  had  been  bred  to  other 
lives,  it  was  the  appearance  *f  the  women,  as  they  as- 
sembled here.  Before  their  flight,  they  had  sold  their 
watches  and  trinkets  as  the  most  available  resource  for 


30 

raising  ready  money ;  and  hence,  like  their  partners, 
who  wore  waistcoats  cut  with  useless  watch  pockets, 
they,  although  their  ears  were  pierced  and  bore  the 
loop-marks  of  rejected  pendants,  were  without  ear- 
rings, finger-rings,  chains  or  brooches.  Except  such 
ornaments,  however,  they  lacked  nothing  most  becom- 
ing the  attire  of  decorous  maidens.  The  neatly  darned 
white  stocking,  and  clean  bright  petticoat,  the  artistic- 
ally clear-starched  collar  and  chemisette,  the  something 
faded,  only  because  too  well  washed,  lawn  or  gingham 
gown,  that  fitted  modishly  to  the  waist  of  its  pretty 
wearer, — these,  if  any  of  them  spoke  of  poverty,  spoke 
of  a  poverty  that  had  known  its  better  days. 

"With  the  rest,  attended  the  elders  of  the  church  with- 
in call,  including  nearly  all  the  chiefs  of  the  High 
Council,  with  their  wives  and  children.  They,  the 
gravest  and  most  trouble-worn,  seemed  the  most  anx- 
ious of  any  to  be  first  to  throw  off  the  burden  of  heavy 
thoughts.  Their  leading  off  the  dancing  in  a  great 
double  cotillion  was  the  signal  bade  the  festivity  com- 
mence. To  the  canto  of  debonnair  violins,  the  cheer  of 
horns,  the  jingle  of  sleigh-bells,  and  the  jovial  snoring 
of  the  tambourine,  they  did  dance !  None  of  your 
minuets  or  other  mortuary  processions  of  gentles  in 
etiquette,  tight  shoes,  and  pinching  gloves,  but  the 
spirited  and  scientific  displays  of  our  venerated  and 
merry  grandparents,  who  were  not  above  following  the 
fiddle  to  the  Fox-Chase  Inn  or  Gardens  of  Gray's  Ferry. 


31 

French  fours,  Copenhagen  jigs  Virginia  reels,  and 
the  like  forgotten  figures,  executed  with  the  spirit  of 
people  too  happy  to  be  slow,  or  bashful  or  constrained. 
Light  hearts,  lithe  figures  and  light  feet,  had  it  their 
own  way  from  an  early  hour  till  after  the  sun  had 
dipped  behind  the  sharp  sky  line  of  the  Omaha  hills. 
Silence  was  then  called,  and  a  well  cultivated  mezzo- 
soprano  voice,  belonging  to  a  young  lady  with  fair  face 
and  dark  eyes,  gave  with  quartette  accompaniment  a 
little  song,  the  notes  of  which  I  have  been  unsuccessful 
in  repeated  efforts  to  obtain  since, — a  version  of  the 
text,  touching  to  all  earthly  wanderers  : 

"  By  the  rivers  of  Babylon  we  sat  down  and  wept." 
"  We  wept  when  we  remembered  Zion." 

There  was  danger  of  some  expression  of  feeling 
when  the  song  was  over,  for  it  had  begun  to  draw  tears ; 
but  breaking  the  quiet  with  his  hard  voice,  an  Elder 
asked  the  blessing  of  Heaven  on  all  who,  with  purity 
of  heart  and  brotherhood  of  spirit,^  had  mingled  in  that 
society,  and  then,  all  dispersed,  hastening  to  cover  from 
the  falling  dews.  All,  I  remember,  but  some  splendid 
Indians,  who  in  cardinal  scarlet  blankets  and  feathered 
leggings,  had  been  making  foreground  figures  for  the 
dancing  rings,  like  those  in  Mr.  West's  picture  of  our 
Philadelphia  Treaty,  and  staring  their  inability  to  com- 
prehend the  wonderful  performances.  These  loitered  to 
the  last,  as  if  unwilling  to  seek  their  abject  homes. 


32 

Well  as  I  knew  the  peculiar  fondness  of  the  Mor- 
mons for  music,  their  orchestra  in  service  on  this  occa- 
sion astonished  me  by  its  numbers  and  fine  drill.  The 
story  was,  that  an  eloquent  Mormon  missionary  had 
converted  its  members  in  .a  body  at  an  English  town, 
a  stronghold  of  the  sect,  and  that  they  took  up  their 
trumpets,  trombones,  drums  and  hautboys  together,  and 
followed  him  to*  America. 

When  the  refugees  from  Nauvoo  were  hastening  to 
part  with  their  table-ware,  jewelry,  and  almost  every 
other  fragment  of  metal  wealth  they  possessed  that  was 
not  iron,  they  had  never  a  thought  of  giving  up  the  in- 
struments of  this  favorite  band.  Ancl  when  the  bat- 
talion was  enlisted,  though  high  inducements  were 
offered  some  of  the  performers  to  accompany  it,  they 
all  refused.  Their  fortunes  went  with  the  Camp  of  the 
Tabernacle.  They  had  led  the  Farewell  Service  in  the 
Nauvoo  Temple.  '  Their  office  now  was  to  guide  the 
monster  choruses  and  Sunday  hymns;  and  like  the 
trumpets  of  silver  made  of  a  whole  piece  '  for  the  call- 
ing of  the  assembly,  and  for  the  journeying  of  the 
x  camps/  to  knoll  the  people  in  to  church.  Some  of  their 
wind  instruments,  indeed,  were  uncommonly  full  and 
pure  toned,  and  in  that  clear  dry  air  could  be  heard  to 
a  great  distance.  It  had  the  strangest  effect  in  the 
world,  to  listen  to  their  sweet  music  winding  over  the 
uninhabited  country.  Something  in  the  style  of  a 
Moravian  death-tune  blown  at  day-break,  but  altogether 


33 

unique.  It  might  be  when  you  were  hunting  a  ford 
over  the  Great  Platte,  the  dreariest  of  ill  wild  rivers, 
perplexed  among  the  far-reaching  sand  bars  and  curlew 
shallows  of  its  shifting  bed: — the  wind  rising  would 
bring  you  the  first  faint  thought  of  a  melody ;  and,  as 
you  listened,  borne  down  upon  the  gust  that  swept 
past  you  a  cloud  of  the  dry  sifted  sands,  you  recog- 
nized it — perhaps  a  home-loved  theme  of  Henry  Proch 
or  Mendelssohn.  Mendelssohn  Bartholdy,  away  there 
in  the  Indian  Marches ! 

The  battalion  gone,  the  host  again  moved  on.  The 
tents  which  had  gathered  on  the  hill  summits,  like 
white  birds  hesitating  to  venture  on  the  long  flight 
over  the  river,  were  struck  one  after  another,  and  the 
dwellers  in  them  and  their  wagons  and  their  cattle 
hastened  down  to  cross  it  at  a  ferry  in  the  valley, 
which  they  made  ply  night  and  day.  A  little  beyond 
the  landing  they  formed  their  companies,  and  made 
their  preparations  for  the  last  and  longest  stage  of  their 
journey.  It  was  a  more  serious  matter  to  cross  the 
mountains  then  than  now,  that  the  thirst  of  our  people 
for  the  gold  of  California  has  made  the  region  between 
them  and  their  desire  such  literally  trodden  ground. 

Thanks  to  this  wonderful  movement,  I  may  dismiss 
an  effort  to  describe  the  incidents  of  emigrant  life  upon 
the  Plains,  presuming  that  you  have  been  made  more 
than  familiar  with  them  already,  by  the  many  repeated 
descriptions  of  which  they  have  been  the  subject.  The 


34 

desert  march,  the  ford,  the  quicksand,  the  Indian  battle, 
the  bison  chase,  the  prairie  fire  : — the  adventures  of  the 
Mormons  comprised  every  variety  of  these  varieties ; 
but  I  could  not  hope  to  invest  them  with  the  interest 
of  novelty.  The  character  of  their  every-day  life,  its 
routine  and  conduct,  alone  offered  any  exclusive  or 
marked  peculiarity.  Their  romantic  devotional  ob- 
servances, and  their  admirable  concert  of  purpose  and 
action,  met  the  eye  at  once.  After  these,  the  stranger 
was  most  struck  perhaps  by  the  strict  order  of  march, 
the  unconfused  closing  up  to  meet  attack,  the  skilful 
securing  of  the  cattle  upon  the  halt,  the  system  with 
which  the  watches  were  set  at  night  to  guard  them 
and  the  lines  of  corral — with  other  similar  circum- 
stances indicative  of  the  maintenance  of  a  high  state  of 
discipline.  Every  ten  of  their  wagons  was  under  the 
care  of  a  captain.  This  captain  of  ten,  as  they  termed 
him,  obeyed  a  captain  of  fifty;  who,  in  turn,  obeyed 
his  captain  of  a  hundred,  or  directly  a  member  of  what 
they  call  the  High  Council  of  the  Church.  All  these 
were  responsible  and  determined  men,  approved  of  by 
'  the  people  for  their  courage,  discretion  and  experience. 
So  well  recognized  were  the  results  of  this  organization, 
that  bands  of  hostile  Indians  have  passed  by  compara- 
tive small  parties  of  Mormons,  to  attack  much  larger, 
but  less  compact  bodies  of  other  emigrants. 

The  most  striking  feature,  however,  of  the  Mormon 
emigration,  was  undoubtedly  their  formation  of  the 


35 

Tabernacle  Camps  and  temporary  Stakes,  or  Settle- 
ments, which  renewed  in  the  sleeping  solitudes  every- 
where along  their  road,  the  cheering  signs  of  intelligent 
and  hopeful  life. 

I  will  make  this  remark  plainer  by  describing  to  you 
one  of  these  camps,  with  the  daily  routine  of  its  inhabi- 
tants. I  select  at  random,  for  my  purpose,  a  large  camp 
upon  the  delta  betwen  the  Nebraska  and  Missouri,  in 
the  territory  disputed  between  the  Omaha,  and  Otto 
and  Missouria  Indians.  It  remained  pitched  here  for 
nearly  two  months,  during  which  period  I  resided  in  it. 

It  was  situated  near  the  Petit  Papillon,  or  Little 
Butterfly  Kiver,  and  upon  some  finely  rounded  hills 
that  encircle  a  favorite  cool  spring.  On  each  of  these 
a  square  was  marked  out;  and  the  wagons  as  they 
arrived  took  their  positions  along  its  four  sides  in 
double  rows,  so  as  to  leave  a  roomy,  street  or  passage- 
way between  them.  The  tents  were  disposed  also  in 
rows,  at  intervals  between  the  wagons.  The  cattle 
were  folded  in  high-fenced  yards  outside.  The  quad- 
rangle inside  was  left  vacant  for  the  sake  of  ventilation, 
and  the  streets,  covered  in  with  leafy  arbor  work  and 
kept  scrupulously  clean,  formed  a  shaded  cloister  walk. 
This  was  the  place  of  exercise  for  slowly  recovering 
invalids,  the  day-home  of  the  infants,  and  the  evening 
promenade  of  all. 

From  the  first  formation  of  the  camp,  all  its  inhabit- 
ants were  constantly  and  laboriously  occupied.    Many 


36 

of  them  were  highly  educated  mechanics,  and  seemed 
only  to  need  a  day's  anticipated  rest  to  engage  them  at 
the  forge,  loom,  or  turning  lathe,  upon  some  needed 
chore  of  work.  A  Mormon  gunsmith  is  the  inventor  of 
the  excellent  repeating  rifle,  that  loads  by  slides  instead 
of  cylinders;  and  one  of  the  neatest  finished  fire-arms  I 
have  ever  seen  was  of  this  kind,  wrought  from  scraps 
of  old  iron,  and  inlaid  with  the  silver  of  a  couple  of 
half  dollars,  under  a  hot  July  sun,  in  a  spot  where  the 
average  height  of  the  grass  was  above  the  workman's 
shoulders.  I  have  seen  a  cobbler,  after  the  halt  of  his 
party  on  the  march,  hunting  along  the  river  bank  for  a 
lap-stone  in  the  twilight,  that  he  might  finish  a  famous 
boot  sole  by  the  camp  fire ;  and  I  have  had  a  piece 
of  cloth,  the  wool  of  which  was  sheared,  and  dyed,  and 
spun,  and  woven,  during  a  progress  of  over  three  hun- 
dred miles.  " 

Their  more  interesting  occupations,  however,  were 
those  growing  out  of  their  peculiar  circumstances  and 
position.  The  chiefs  were  seldom  without  some  curious 
affair  on  hand  to  settle  with  the  restless  Indians ;  while 
the  immense  labor  and  responsibility  of  the  conduct  of 
their  unwieldy  moving  army,  and  the  commissariat 
of  its  hundreds  of  famishing  poor,  also  devolved  upon 
them.  They  had  good  men  they  called  Bishops,  whose 
special  office  it  was  to  look  up  the  cases  of  extremest 
suffering :  and  their  relief  parties  were  out  night  and 
day  to  scour  over  every  trail. 


37 

At  this  time,  say  two  months  before  the  final  expul- 
sion from  Nauvoo,  there  were  already,  along  three  hun- 
dred miles  of  the  road  between  that  city  and  our  Papil- 
lon  Camp,  over  two  thousand  emigrating  wagons,  be- 
sides a  large  number  of  nondescript  turn-outs,  the  motley 
make-shifts  of  poverty ;  from  the  unsuitably  heavy  cart 
that  lumbered  on  mysteriously  with  its  sick  driver 
hidden  under  its  counterpane  cover,  to  the  crazy  two- 
wheeled  trundle,  such  as  our  own  poor  employ  for 
the  conveyance  of  their  slop  barrels,  this  pulled  along 
it  may  be  by  a  little  dry  dugged  heifer,  and  rigged  up 
only  to  drag  some  such  light  weight  as  a  baby,  a  sack 
of  meal,  or  a  pack  of  clothes  and  bedding. 

Some  of  them  were  in  distress  from  losses  upon  the 
way.  A  strong  trait  of  the  Mormons  was  their  kind- 
ness to  their  brute  dependents,  and  particularly  to 
their  beasts  of  draught.  They  gave  them  the  holi- 
day of  the  Sabbath  whenever  it  came  round :  I  believe 
they  would  have  washed  them  with  old  wine,  after  the 
example  of  the  emigrant  Carthaginians,  had  they  had 
any.  Still,  in  the  Slave-coast  heats,  under  which  the 
animals  had  to  move,  they  sometimes  foundered.  Some- 
times, too,  they  strayed  off  in  the  night,  or  were  mired 
in  morasses ; — or  oftener  were  stolen  by  Indians,  who 
found  market  covert  for  such  plunder  among  the  horse- 
thief  whites  of  the  frontier.  But  the  great  mass  of 
these  pilgrims  of  the  desert  was  made  up  of  poor 


38 

folks,  who  had  fled  in  destitution  from  Nauvoo,  and 
been  refused  a  resting  place  by  the  people  of  Iowa. 

It  is  difficult  fully  to  understand  the  state  of  help- 
lessness in  which  some  of  these  would  arrive,  after 
accomplishing  a  journey  of  such  extent,  under  circum- 
stances of  so  much  privation  and  peril.  The  fact 
was,  they  seemed  to  believe  that  all  their  trouble  would 
be  at  an  end  if  they  could  only  come  up  with  their 
comrades  at  the  Great  Camps.  For  this  they  calcu- 
lated their  resources,  among  which  their  power  of  en- 
durance was  by  much  the  largest  and  most  reliable 
item,  and  they  were  not  disappointed  if  they  arrived 
with  these  utterly  exhausted. 

I  remember  a  signal  instance  of  this  at  the  Papillon 
Camp. 

It  was  that  of  a  joyous  hearted  clever  fellow, 
whose  songs  and  fiddle  tunes  were  the  life  and  de- 
light of  Nauvoo  in  its  merry  days.  I  forget  his  story, 
and  how  exactly,  it  fell  about,  that  after  a  Mormon's 
full  peck  of  troubles,  he  started  after  us  with  his 
wife  and  little  ones  from  some  '  lying  down  place'  in 
the  Indian  country,  where  he  had  contended  with  an 
attack  of  a  serious  malady.  He  was  just  convalescent, 
and  the  fatigue  of  marching  on  foot  again  with  a  child 
on  his  back,  speedily  brought  on  a  relapse.  But  his 
anxiety  to  reach  a  place  where  he  could  expect  to  meet 
friends  with  shelter  and  food,  was  such  that  he  only 
pressed  on  the  harder.  Probably  for  more  than  a  week 


39 

of  the  dog-star  weather,  he  laboured  on  under  a  high 
fever,  walking  every  day  till  he  was  entirely  exhausted. 

His  limbs  failed  him  then ;  but  his  courage  holding 
out,  he  got  into  his  covered  cart  on  top  of  its  freight  of 
baggage,  and  made  them  drive  him  on,  while  he  lay 
down.  They  could  hardly  believe  how  ill  he  was,  he 
talked  on  so  cheerfully — "  I'm  nothing  on  earth  ailing 
but  home-sick:  I'm  cured  the  very  minute  I  get  to 
camp  and  see  the  brethren." 

Not  being  able  thus  to  watch  his  course,  he  lost  his 
way,  and  had  to  regain  it  through  a  wretched  tract  of 
Low  Meadow  Prairie,  where  there  were  no  trees  to 
break  the  noon,  nor  water  but  what  was  ague-sweet  or 
brackish.  By  the  time  he  got  back  to  the  trail  of  the 
High  Prairie,  he  was,  in  his  own  phrase,  ( pretty  far  gone. 
Yet  he  was  resolute  in  his  purpose  as  ever,  and  to  a 
party  he  fell  in  with,  avowed  his  intention  to  be  cured 
at  the  camp,  '  and  no  where  else/  He  even  jested  with 
them,  comparing  his  jolting  couch  to  a  summer  cot  in  a 
white  washed  cockloft.  "  But  I'll  make  them  take  me 
down,"  he  said,  "  and  give  me  a  dip  in  the  river  when 
I  get  there.  All  I  care  for  is  to  see  the  brethren." 

His  determined  bearing  rallied  the  spirit  of  his  tra- 
velling household,  and  they  kept  on  their  way  till 
he  was  within  a  few  hours  journey  of  the  camp.  He 
entered  on  his  last  day's  journey  with  the  energy  of 
increased  hope. 

I  remember  that  day  well.     For  in  the  evening  I 


40 

mounted  a  tired  horse  to  go  a  short  errand,  and  in  mere 
pity  had  to  turn  back  before  I  had  walked  him  a  couple 
of  hundred  yards.  Nothing  seemed  to  draw  life  from 
the  languid  air  but  the  clouds  of  gnats  and  stinging 
midges;  and  long  after  sundown  it  was  so  hot  that  the 
sheep  lay  on  their  stomachs  panting,  and  the  cattle 
strove  to  lap  wind  like  hard  fagged  hunting  dogs.  In 
camp,  I  had  spent  the  day  in  watching  the  invalids 
and  the  rest  hunting  the  shade  under  the  wagon  bodies, 
and  veering  about  them,  like  the  shadows  round  the 
sun-dial.  I  know  I  thought  myself  wretched  enough, 
to  be  of  their  company. 

Poor  Merryman  had  all  that  heat  to  bear,  with  the 
mere  pretence  of  an  awning  to  screen  out  the  sun  from 
his  close  muslin  cockloft. 

He  did  not  fail  till  somewhere  hard  upon  noon.  He 
then  began  to  grow  restless  to  know  accurately  the  dis- 
tance travelled.  He  made  them  give  him  water,  too, 
much  more  frequently;  and  when  they  stopped  for  this 
purpose,  asked  a  number  of  obscure  questions.  A  little 
after  this  he  discovered  himself  that  a  film  had  come  over 
his  eyes.  He  confessed  that  this  was  discouraging ;  but 
said  with  stubborn  resignation,  that  if  denied  to  see  the 
brethren,  he  still  should  hear  the  sound  of  their  voices. 

After  this,  which  was  when  he  was  hardly  three  miles 
from  our  camp,  he  lay  very  quiet,  as  if  husbanding  his 
strength ;  but  when  he  had  made,  as  is  thought,  a  full 
mile  further,  being  interrogated  by  the  woman  that 


41 

was  driving,  whether  she  should  stop,  he  answered  her, 
as  she  avers,  "  No,  no;  go  on !" 

The  anecdote  ends  badly.  They  brought  him  in 
dead,  I  think  about  five  o'clock  of  the  afternoon.  He 
had  on  his  clean  clothes ;  as  he  had  dressed  himself  in 
the  morning,  looking  forward  to  his  arrival. 

Beside  the  common  duty  of  guiding  and  assisting 
these  unfortunates,  the  companies  in  the  van  united  in 
providing  the  highway  for  the  entire  body  of  emigrants. 
The  Mormons  have  laid  out  for  themselves  a  road 
through  the  Indian  Territory,  over  four  hundred  leagues 
in  length,  with  substantial,  well-built  bridges,  fit  for  the 
passage  of  heavy  artillery,  over  all  the  streams,  except 
a  few  great  rivers  where  they  have  established  perma- 
nent ferries.  The  nearest  unfinished  bridging  to  the 
Papillon  Camp,  was  that  of  the  Corne  a  Cerf,  or  Elk- 
horn,  a  tributary  of  the  Platte,  distant  may  be  a  cou- 
ple of  hours'  march.  Here,  in  what  seemed  to  be  an 
incredibly  short  space  of  time,  there  rose  the  seven  great 
piers  and  abutments  of  a  bridge,  such  as  might  chal- 
lenge honors  for  the  entire  public  spirited  population  of 
lower  Virginia.  The  party  detailed  to  the  task  worked 
in  the  broiling  sun,  in  water  beyond  depth,  and  up 
to  their  necks,  as  if  engaged  in  the  perpetration  of  some 
pointed  and  delightful  practical  joke.  The  chief  sport 
lay  in  floating  along  with  the  logs,  cut  from  the  over- 
hanging timber  up  the  stream,  guiding  them  till  they 
reached  their  destination,  and  then  plunging  them  under 


42 

water  in  the  precise  spot  where  they  were  to  be  se- 
cured. This  the  laughing  engineers  would  execute 
with  the  agility  of  happy  diving  ducks. 

Our  nearest  ferry  was  that  over  the  Missouri.  Nearly 
opposite  Pull  Point,  or  Point  aux  Poules,  a  trading  post 
of  the  American  Fur  Company,  and  village  of  the  Potta- 
watamies,  they  had  gained  a  favorable  crossing  by  ma- 
king a  deep  cut  for  the  road  through  the  steep  right 
bank.  And  here,  without  intermission,  their  flat-bot- 
tomed scows  plied,  crowded  with  the  wagons  and  cows 
and  sheep  and  children  and  furniture  of  the  emigrants, 
who,  in  waiting  their  turn,  made  the  woods  around  smoke 
with  their  crowding  camp  fires.  But  no  such  good  for- 
tune as  a  gratuitous  passage  awaited  the  heavy  cattle, 
of  whom,  with  the  others,  no  less  than  30,000  were  at 
this  time  on  their  way  westward :  these  were  made  to 
earn  it  by  swimming. 

A  heavy  freshet  had  at  this  time  swollen  the  river 
to  a  width,  as  I  should  judge,  of  something  like  a  mile 
and  a  half,  and  dashed  past  its  fierce  current,  rushing, 
gurgling,  and  eddying,  as  if  thrown  from  a  mill  race,  or 
'  fountain  of  the  deep.  Its  aspect  did  not  invite 
the  oxen  to  their  duty,  and  the  labor  was  to  force  them 
to  it.  They  were  gathered  in  little  troops  upon  the 
shore,  and  driven  forward  till  they  lost  their  footing. 
As  they  turned  their  heads  to  return,  they  encountered 
the  combined  opposition  of  a  clamorous  crowd  of  by- 
standers, vieing  with  each  other  in  the  pungent  admin- 


43 

istration  of  inhospitable  affront.  Then  rose  their  hub- 
bub ;  their  geeing  and  woing  and  hawing,  their  yelling 
and  yelping  and  screaming,  their  hooting  and  hissing 
and  pelting.  The  rearmost  steers  would  hesitate  to 
brave  such  a  rebuff;  halting,  they  would  impede  the 
return  of  the  outermost ;  they  all  would  waver ;  waver- 
ing for  a  moment,  the  current  would  sweep  them  to- 
gether downward.  At  this  juncture,  a  fearless  young- 
ster, climbing  upon  some  brave  bull  in  the  front  rank, 
would  urge  him  boldly  forth  into  the  stream  :  the  rest 
then  surely  followed ;  a  few  moments  saw  them  strug- 
gling in  mid  current ;  a  few  more,  and  they  were  safely 
landed  on  the  opposite  shore.  The  driver's  was  the 
sought  after  post  of  honor  here ;  and  sometimes,  when  re- 
peated failures  have  urged  them  to  emulation,  I  have 
seen  the  youths,  in  stepping  from  back  to  back  of  the 
struggling  monsters,  or  swimming  in  among  their  bat- 
tling hoofs,  display  feats  of  address  and  hardihood,  that 
would  have  made  Franconi's  or  the  Madrid  bull-ring 
vibrate  with  bravos  of  applause.  But  in  the  hours 
after  hours  that  I  have  watched  this  sport  at  the  ferry 
side,  I  never  heard  an  oath  or  the  language  of  quarrel, 
or  knew  it  provoke  the  least  sign  of  ill  feeling. 

After  the  sorrowful  word  was  given  out  to  halt,  and 
make  preparations  for  winter,  a  chief  labor  became  the 
making  hay ;  and  with  every  day  dawn  brigades  of 
mowers  would  take  up  the  march  to  their  positions  in 
chosen  meadows — a  prettier  sight  than  a  charge  of 


44 

cavalry — as  they  laid  their  swarths,  whole  companies 
of  scythes  abreast.  Before  this  time  the  manliest,  as 
well  as  most  general  daily  labor,  was  the  herding  of  the 
cattle;  the  only  wealth  of  the  Mormons,  and  more  and 
more  cherished  by  them,  with  the  increasing  pastoral 
character  of  their  lives.  A  camp  could  not  be  pitched 
in  any  spot  without  soon  exhausting  the  freshness  of 
the  pasture  around  it;  and  it  became  an  ever  recurring 
task  to  guide  the  cattle,  in  unbroken  droves,  to  the 
nearest  places  where  it  was  still  fresh  and  fattening. 
Sometimes  it  was  necessary  to  go  farther,  to  distant 
ranges  which  were  known  as  feeding  grounds  of  the 
Buffalo.  About  these  there  were  sure  to  prowl  parties 
of  thievish  Indians ;  and  each  drove  therefore  had  its 
escort  of  mounted  men  and  boys,  who  learned  self- 
reliance  and  heroism  while  on  night  guard  alone,  among 
the  silent  hills.  But  generally  the  cattle  were  driven 
from  the  camp  at  the  dawn  of  morning,  and  brought 
back  thousands  together  in  the  evening,  to  be  picketed 
in  the  great  corral  or  enclosure,  where  beeves,  bulls, 
cows,  and  oxen,  with  the  horses,  mules,  hogs,  calves, 
sheep  and  human  beings,  could  all  look  together  upon 
the  red  watch  fires,  with  the  feeling  of  security,  when 
aroused  by  the  Indian  stampede,  or  the  howlings  of  the 
prairie  wolves  at  moonrise. 

When  they  set  about  building  their  winter  houses, 
too,  the  Mormons  went  into  quite  considerable  timbering 
operations,  and  performed  desperate  feats  of  carpentry. 


45 

They  did  not  come,  ornamental  gentlemen  or  raw  ap- 
prentices, to  extemporise  new  versions  of  Robinson  Cru- 
soe. It  was  a  comfort  to  notice  the  readiness  with 
which  they  turned  their  hands  to  wood  craft;  some  of 
them,  though  I  believe  these  had  generally  been  bred 
carpenters,  wheelwrights,  or  more  particularly  boat 
builders,  quite  outdoing  the  most  notable  voyageurs  in 
the  use  of  the  axe.  One  of  these  would  fell  a  tree, 
strip  off  its  bark,  cut  and  split  up  the  trunk  in  piles  of 
plank,  scantling,  or  shingles ;  make  posts,  and  pins,  and 
pales — everything  wanted  almost,  of  the  branches ;  and 
treat  his  toil  from  first  to  last  with  more  sportive  flour- 
ish than  a  school-boy  whittling  his  shingle. 

Inside  the  camp,  the  chief  labors  were  assigned  to  the 
women.  From  the  moment,  when  after  the  halt,  the 
lines  had  been  laid,  the  spring  wells  dug  out,  and  the 
ovens  and  fire-places  built,  though  the  men  still  assumed 
to  set  the  guards  and  enforce  the  regulations  of  Police, 
the  Empire  of  the  Tented  Town  was  with  the  better  sex. 
They  were  the  chief  comforters  of  the  severest  suffer- 
ers, the  kind  nurses  who  gave  them  in  their  sickness, 
those  dear  attentions,  with  which  pauperism  is  hardly 
poor,  and  which  the  greatest  wealth  often  fails  to  buy. 
And  they  were  a  nation  of  wonderful  managers.  They 
could  hardly  be  called  housewives  in  etymological 
strictness,  but  it  was  plain  that  they  had  once  been 
such,  and  most  distinguished  ones.  Their  art  availed 
them  in  their  changed  affairs.  With  almost  their  en- 


46 

tire  culinary  material  limited  to  the  milk  of  their  cows, 
some  store  of  meal  or  flour,  and  a  very  few  condi- 
ments, they  brought  their  thousand  and  one  receipts 
into  play  with  a  success  that  outdid  for  their  families, 
the  miracle  of  the  Hebrew  widow's  cruise.  They 
learned  to  make  butter  on  a  march,  by  the  dashing  of 
the  wagon,  and  so  nicely  to  calculate  the  working  of 
barm  in  the  jolting  heats,  that  as  soon  after  the  halt 
as  an  oven  could  be  dug  in  the  hill  side  and  heated, 
their  well  kneaded  loaf  was  ready  for  baking,  and  pro- 
duced good  leavened  bread  for  supper.  I  have  no  doubt 
the  appetizing  zest,  their  humble  lore  succeeded  in  im- 
parting to  diet  which  was  both  simple  and  meagre, 
availed  materially  for  the  health  as  well  as  the  comfort 
of  the  people. 

But  the  first  duty  of  the  Mormon  women  was, 
through  all  change  of  place  and  fortune,  to  keep  alive 
the  altar  fire  of  home.  Whatever  their  manifold  labors 
for  the  day,  it  was  their  effort  to  complete  them  against 
the  sacred  hour  of  evening  fall.  For  by  that  time  all 
the  out-workers,  scouts,  ferrymen  or  bridgemen,  road- 
makers,  herdsmen  or  haymakers,  had  finished  their 
tasks  and  come  in  to  their  rest.  And  before  the  last 
smoke  of  the  supper  fire  curled  up  reddening  in  the 
glow  of  sunset,  a  hundred  chimes  of  cattle  bells  an- 
nounced their  looked-for  approach  across  the  open  hills, 
and  the  women  went  out  to  meet  them  at  the  camp 


47 

gates,  and  with  their  children  in  their  laps  sat  by  them 
at  the  cherished  Family  meal,  and  talked  over  the 
events  of  the  well-spent  day. 

But  every  day  closed  as  every  day  began,  with  an 
invocation  of  the  Divine  favour ;  without  which,  indeed, 
no  Mormon  seemed  to  dare  to  lay  him  down  to  rest. 
With  the  first  shining  of  the  stars,  laughter  and  loud 
talking  hushed,  the  neighbor  went  his  way,  you  heard 
the  last  hymn  sung,  and  then  the  thousand-voiced 
murmur  of  prayer  was  heard  like  babbling  water  fall- 
ing down  the  hills.  ^ 

There  was  no  austerity,  however,  about  the  religion 
of  Mormonism.  Their  fasting  and  penance,  it  is  no 
jest  to  say,  was  altogether  involuntary.  They  made  no 
merit  of  that.  They  kept  the  Sabbath  with  considera- 
ble strictness  :  they  were  too  close  copyists  of  the  wan- 
derers of  Israel  in  other  respects  not  to  have  learned, 
like  them,  the  value  of  this  most  admirable  of  the 
Egypto-Mosaic  institutions.  But  the  rest  of  the  week, 
their  religion  was  independent  of  ritual  observance. 
They  had  the  sort  of  strong  stomached  faith  that  is 
still  found  embalmed  in  sheltered  spots  of  Catholic 
Italy  and  Spain,  with  the  spirit  of  the  believing  or 
Dark  Ages.  It  was  altogether  too  strongly  felt,  to  be 
dependent  on  intellectual  ingenuity  or  careful  caution 
of  the  ridiculous.  It  mixed  itself  up  fearlessly  with 
the  common  transactions  of  their  every-day  life,  and 
only  to  give  them  liveliness  and  color. 


48 

If  any  passages  of  life  bear  better  than  others  a 
double  interpretation,  they  are  the  adventures  of 
travel,  and  of  the  field.  What  old  persons  call  discom- 
forts and  discouraging  mishaps,  are  the  very  elements 
to  the  young  and  sanguine,  of  what  they  are  willing 
to  term  fun.  The  Mormons  took  the  young  and 
hopeful  side.  They  could  make  sport  and  frolic  of 
their  trials,  and  often  turn  right  sharp  suffering  into 
right  round  laughter  against  themselves.  I  certainly 
heard  more  jests,  and  Joe  Millers  while  in  this  Papillon 
Camp,  than  I  am  likely  to  hear  in  all  the  remainder  of 
my  days. 

This,  too,  was  at  a  time  of  serious  affliction.  Beside 
the  ordinary  suffering  from  insufficient  food  and  shelter, 
distressing  and  mortal  sickness,  exacerbated,  if  not 
originated  by  these  causes,  was  generally  prevalent. 

In  the  camp  nearest  us  on  the  West,  which  was  that 
of  the  bridging  party  near  the  Corne,  the  number  of 
its  inhabitants  being  small  enough  to  invite  computa- 
tion, I  found,  as  early  as  the  31st  of  July,  that  37  per 
cent,  of  its  inhabitants  were  down  with  the  Fever  and 
a  sort  of  strange  scorbutic  disease,  frequently  fatal, 
which  they  named  the  Black  Canker.  The  camps  to 
the  East  of  us,  which  were  all  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Missouri,  were  yet  worse  fated. 

The  climate  of  the  entire  upper  '  Misery  Bottom,'  as 
they  term  it,  is,  during  a  considerable  part  of  Summer 
and  Autumn  singularly  pestiferous.  Its  rich  soil,  which 


49 

is  to  a  depth  far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  plough  as  fat 
as  the  earth  of  kitchen  garden,  or  compost-heap,  is  an- 
nually the  force-bed  of  a  vegetation  as  rank  as  that  of 
the  Tropics.  To  render  its  fatal  fertility  the  greater, 
it  is  everywhere  freely  watered  by  springs  and  creeks 
and  larger  streams,  that  flow  into  it  from  both  sides.  In 
the  season  of  drought,  when  the  Sun  enters  Virgo,  these 
dry  down  till  they  run  impure  as  open  sewers,  exposing 
to  the  day  foul  broad  flats,  mere  quagmires  of  black 
dirt,  stretching  along  for  miles,  unvaried,  except  by  the 
limbs  of  half  buried  carrion  tree  trunks,  or  by  occasional 
yellow  pools  of  what  the  children  call  frog  spawn;  all 
together  steaming  up  thick  vapours  redolent  of  the  sa- 
vour of  death. 

The  same  is  the  habit  of  the  Great  River.  In  the 
beginning  of  August,  its  shores  hardly  could  contain 
the  millions  of  forest  logs,  and  tens  of  billions  of  gallons 
of  turbid  water,  that  came  rushing  down  together  from 
its  mountain  head-gates.  But  before  the  month  was 
out,  the  freshet  had  all  passed  by ;  the  river  diminished 
one  half,  threaded  feebly  southward  through  the  centre 
of  the  Valley,  and  the  mud  of  its  channel,  baked  and 
creased,  made  a  wide  tile  pavement  between  the  choking 
crowd  of  reeds  and  sedgy  grasses  and  wet  stalked  we'eds, 
and  growths  of  marsh  meadow  flowers,  the  garden 
homes  at  this  tainted  season  of  venom-crazy  snakes, 
and  the  fresher  ooze  by  the  water's  edge,  which  stank 

in  the  sun  like  a  naked  muscle  shoal. 

4 


50 

Then  the  plague  raged.  I  have  no  means  of  ascer- 
taining the  mortality  of  the  Indians  who  inhabited  the 
Bottom.  In  1845,  the  year  previous,  which  was  not 
more  unhealthy,  they  lost  one-ninth  of  their  number  in 
about  two  months.  The  Mormons  were  scourged  se- 
verely. The  exceeding  mortality  among  some  of  them, 
was  no  doubt  in  the  main  attributable  to  the  low  state 
to  which  their  systems  had  been  brought  by  long  con- 
tinued endurance  of  want  and  hardship.  It  is  to  be 
remembered  also,  that  they  were  the  first  turners  up  of 
the  prairie  sod,  and  that  this  of  itself  made  them  liable 
to  the  sickness  of  new  countries.  It  was  where  their 
agricultural  operations  had  been  most  considerable,  and 
in  situations  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  where  the 
prevalent  south-west  winds  wafted  to  them  the  mias- 
mata of  its  shores,  that  disease  was  most  rife.* 

In  some  of  these,  the  fever  prevailed  to  such  an 
extent  that  hardly  any  escaped  it.  They  let  their  cows 
go  unmilked.  They  wanted  for  voices  to  raise  the  Psalm 
of  Sundays.  The  few  who  were  able  to  keep  their 
feet,  went  about  among  the  tents  and  wagons  with  food 
and  water,  like  nurses  through  the  wards  of  an  In- 
firmary. Here  at  one  time  the  digging  got  behind  hand : 
burials  were  slow;  and  you  might  see  women  sit  in  the 
open  tents  keeping  the  flies  off  their  dead  children, 
sometime  after  decomposition  had  set  in. 

*  It  is  certain  that  there  is  no  sickness  among  the  present  inhabitants 
of  this  region  comparable  to  that  of  1846. 


51 

In  our  own  camp  for  a  part  of  August  and  Septem- 
ber, things  wore  an  unpleasant  aspect  enough.*  Its 
situation  was  one  much  praised  for  its  comparative 
salubrity;  but  perhaps  on  this  account,  the  number  of 
cases  of  Fever  among  us  was  increased  by  the  hurry- 
ing arrival  from  other  localities,  of  parties  in  whom  the 
virus  leaven  of  disease  was  fermented  by  forced  travel. 

But  I  am  excused  sufficiently  the  attempt  to  get  up 
for  your  entertainment  here  any  circumstantial  picture 
of  horrors,  by  the  fact,  that  at  the  most  interesting  sea- 
son, I  was  incapacitated  for  nice  observation  by  an 
attack  of  Fever — mine  was  what  they  call  the  Con- 
gestive— that  it  required  the  utmost  use  of  all  my 
faculties  to  recover  from.  I  still  kept  my  tent  in  the 
camp  line ;  but,  for  as  much  as  a  month,  had  very 
small  notion  of  what  went  on  among  my  neighbors. 
I  recollect  overhearing  a  lamentation  over  some  dear 
baby,  that  its  mother  no  doubt  thought  the  destroying 
angel  should  have  been  specially  instructed  to  spare. 
I  wish  too  for  my  own  sake,  I  could  forget,  how  im- 
perfectly one  day  I  mourned  the  decease  of  a  poor 
saint,  who  by  clamor  rendered  his  vicinity  troublesome. 
He  no  doubt  endured  great  pain;  for  he  groaned 
shockingly  till  death  came  to  his  relief.  He  interfered 

*  This  camp  was  moved  by  the  beginning  of  October  to  winter  quarters 
on  the  river,  where  also,  there  was  considerable  sickness  before  the  cold 
weather.  I  am  furnished  with  something  over  600  as  the  number  of 
burials  in  the  graveyard  there. 


52 

with  my  own  hard  gained  slumbers,  and — I  was  glad 
when  Death  did  relieve  him. 

Before  my  attack,  I  was  fond  of  conversing  with 
an  amiable  old  man,  I  think  English  born,  who  having 
then  recently  buried  his  only  daughter  and  grandson, 
used  to  be  seen  sitting  out  before  his  tent,  resting  his 
sorrowful  forehead  on  his  hands,  joined  over  a  smooth 
white  oak  staff.  I  missed  him  when  I  got  about  again ; 
probably  he  had  been  my  moaning  neighbor. 

So,  too,  having  been  much  exercised  in  my  dreams 
at  this  time,  by  the  vision  of  dismal  processions,  such 
as  might  have  been  formed  by  the  union  in  line  of  all 
the  forlornest  and  ugliest  of  the  struggling  fugitives 
from  Nauvoo,  I  happen  to  recal  as  I  write,  that  I 
had  some  knowledge  somewhere  of  one  of  our  new 
comers,  for  whom  the  nightmare  revived  and  repeated 
without  intermission  the  torment  of  his  trying  journey. 
As  he  lay,  feeding  life  with  long  drawn  breaths,  he 
muttered  :  "  Where's  next  water  ?  Team — give  out ! 
Hot,  hot — God,  it's  hot :  Stop  the  wagon — stop  the 
wagon — stop,  stop  the  wagon !"  They  woke  him ; — to 
his  own  content — but  I  believe  returning  sleep  ever 
renewed  his  distressing  visions,  till  the  sounder  slum- 
ber came  on  from  which  no  earthly  hand  or  voice  could 
rouse  him ;  into  which  I  hope  he  did  not  carry  them. 

In  a  half  dreamy  way,  I  remember,  or  I  think  I  re- 
member, a  crowd  of  phantoms  like  these.  I  recal  but 
one  fact,  however,  going  far  in  proof  of  a  considera- 


53 

ble  mortality.  Earlier  in  the  season,  while  going 
westward  with  the  intention  of  passing  the  Kocky 
Mountains  that  summer,  I  had  opened  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Mormon  spades  and  shovels,  a  large  mound  on 
a  commanding  elevation,  the  tomb  of  a  warrior  of  the 
ancient  race;  and  continuing  on  my  way,  had  left  a 
deep  trench  excavated  entirely  through  it.  Returning 
fever-struck  to  the  Papillon  Camp,  I  found  it  planted 
close  by  this  spot.  It  was  just  forming  as  I  arrived ; 
the  first  wagon,  if  I  mistake  not,  having  but  a  day  or 
two  before  halted  into  place.  My  first  airing  upon 
my  convalesence  took  me  to  the  mound,  which,  pro- 
bably to  save  digging,  had  been  re-adapted  to  its  original 
purpose.  In  this  brief  interval,  they  had  filled  the 
trench  with  bodies,  and  furrowed  the  ground  with 
graves  around  it,  like  the  ploughing  of  a  field. 

The  lengthened  sojourn  of  the  Mormons  in  this  in- 
salubrious region,  was  imposed  upon  them  by  circum- 
stances which  I  must  now  advert  to. 

Though  the  season  was  late,  when  they  first  crossed 
the  Missouri,  some  of  them  moved  forward  with  great 
hopefulness,  full  of  the  notion  of  viewing  and  choosing 
their  new  homes  that  year.  But  the  van  had  only 
reached  Grand  Island  and  the  Pawnee  villages,  when 
they  were  overtaken  by  more  ill  news  from  Nauvoo. 
Before  the  summer  closed,  their  enemies  set  upon  the 
last  remnant  of  those  who  were  left  behind  in  Illinois. 


54 

They  were  a  few  lingerers,  who  could  not  be  persuaded 
but  there  might  yet  be  time  for  them  to  gather  up  their 
worldly  goods  before  removing,  some  weakly  mothers 
and  their  infants,  a  few  delicate  young  girls,  and  many 
cripples  and  bereaved  and  sick  people.  These  had 
remained  under  shelter,  according  to  the  Mormon  state- 
ment at  least,  by  virtue  of  an  express  covenant  in  their 
behalf.  If  there  was  such  a  covenant,  it  was  broken. 
A  vindictive  war  was  waged  upon  them,  from  which 
the  weakest  fled  in  scattered  parties,  leaving  the  rest  to 
make  a  reluctant  and  almost  ludicrously  unavailing 
defence,  till  the  17th  day  of  September,  when  1,625 
troops  entered  Nauvoo,  and  drove  all  forth  who  had  not 
retreated  before  that  time. 

Like  the  wounded  birds  of  a  flock  fired  into  toward 
nightfall,  they  came  straggling  on  with  faltering  steps, 
many  of  them  without  bag  or  baggage,  beast  or  barrow,* 
all  asking  shelter  or  burial,  and  forcing  a  fresh  reparti- 
tion of  the  already  divided  rations  of  their  friends.  It 
was  plain  now,  that  every  energy  must  be  taxed  to 
prevent  the  entire  expedition  from  perishing.  Further 
emigration  for  the  time  was  out  of  the  question,  and 
the  whole  people  prepared  themselves  for  encountering 
another  winter  on  the  prairie. 

*  I  knew  of  an  orphan  boy,  for  instance,  who  came  on  by  himself  at  this 
time  a  foot,  starting  with  no  other  provision  than  his  trowser's  pocket  full 
of  biscuit,  given  him  from  a  steamboat  on  the  Mississippi. 


55 

Happily  for  the  main  body,  they  found  themselves 
at  this  juncture  among  Indians,  who  were  amicably 
disposed.  The  lands  on  both  sides  of  the  Missouri  in 
particular,  were  owned  by  the  Pottawatamies  and 
Omahas,  two  tribes  whom  unjust  treatment  by  our 
United  States,  had  the  effect  of  rendering  most  auspi- 
ciously hospitable  to  strangers  whom  they  regarded  as 
persecuted  like  themselves. 

The  Pottawdtamies  on  the  eastern  side,  are  a  nation 
from  whom  the  United  States  bought  some  years  ago  a 
number  of  hundred  thousand  acres  of  the  finest  lands 
they  have  ever  brought  into  market.  Whatever  the 
bargain  was,  the  sellers  were  not  content  with  it ;  the 
people  saying,  their  leaders  were  cheated,  made  drunk, 
bribed,  and  all  manner  of  naughty  things  besides.  No 
doubt  this  was  quite  as  much  of  a  libel  on  the  fair 
fame  of  this  particular  Indian  treaty,  as  such  stories 
generally  are;  for  the  land  to  which  the  tribe  was 
removed  in  pursuance  of  it,  was  admirably  adapted  to 
enforce  habits  of  civilized  thrift.  It  was  smooth  prairie, 
wanting  in  timber,  and  of  course  in  game ;  and  the 
humane  and  philanthropic  might  rejoice  therefore  that 
necessity  would  soon  indoctrinate  its  inhabitants  into 
the  practice  of  agriculture.  An  impracticable  few,  who 
may  have  thought  these  advantages  more  than  com- 
pensated by  the  insalubrity  of  their  allotted  resting  place, 
fled  to  the  extreme  wilds,  where  they  could  find  deer 
and  woods,  and  rocks  and  running  water,  and  where  I 


56 

believe  they  are  roaming  to  this  day.  The  remainder, 
being  what  the  political  vocabulary  designates  on  such 
occasions  as  Friendly  Indians,  were  driven — marched 
is  the  word — galley  slaves  are  marched  thus  to  Bar- 
celona and  Toulon — marched  from  the  Mississippi  to 
the  Missouri,  and  planted  there.  Discontented  and  un- 
happy, they  had  hardly  begun  to  form  an  attachment 
for  this  new  soil,  when  they  were  persuaded  to  ex- 
change it  for  their  present  Fever  Patch  upon  the  Kaw 
or  Kansas  River.  They  were  under  this  second  sen- 
tence of  transportation  when  the  Mormons  arrived 
among  them. 

They  were  pleased  with  the  Mormons.  They  would 
have  been  pleased  with  any  whites  who  would  not 
cheat  them>  nor  sell  them  whiskey,  nor  whip  them  for 
their  poor  gipsey  habits,  nor  bear  themselves  indecently 
toward  their  women,  many  of  whom  among  the  Potta- 
watamies,  especially  those  of  nearly  unmixed  French 
descent,  are  singularly  comely,  and  some  of  them  edu- 
cated. But  all  Indians  have  something  like  a  senti- 
ment of  reverence  for  the  insane,  and  admire  those 
who  sacrifice,  without  apparent  motive,  their  worldly 
welfare  to  the  triumph  of  an  idea.  They  understand 
the  meaning  of  what  they  call  a  great  vow,  and  think 
it  the  duty  of  the  right-minded  to  lighten  the  votary's 
penance  under  it.  To  this  feeling  they  united  the 
sympathy  of  fellow  sufferers  for  those  who  could  talk 


57 

to  them  of  their  own  Illinois,  and  tell  the  story  how 
from  it  they  also  had  been  ruthlessly  expelled. 

Their  hospitality  was  sincere,  almost  delicate.  Fanny 
Le  Clerc,  the  spoiled  child  of  the  great  brave,  Pied 
Riche,  interpreter  of  the  Nation,  would  have  the  pale 
face  Miss  Devine  learn  duetts  with  her  to  the  guitar; 
and  the  daughter  of  substantial  Joseph  La  Framboise, 
the  interpreter  of  the  United  States, — she  died  of  the 
fever  that  summer, — welcomed  all  the  nicest  young 
Mormon  Kitties  and  Lizzies,  and  Jennies  and  Susans, 
to  a  coffee  feast  at  her  father's  house,  which  was  pro- 
bably the  best  cabin  in  the  river  village.  They  made 
the  Mormons  at  home,  there  and  elsewhere.  Upon 
all  their  lands  they  formally  gave  them  leave  to  tarry 
just  so  long  as  should  suit  their  own  good  pleasure. 

The  affair,  of  course,  furnished  material  for  a  so- 
lemn council.  Under  the  auspices  of  an  officer  of  the 
United  States,  their  chiefs  were  summoned,  in  the  form 
befitting  great  occasions,  to  meet  in  the  dirty  yard  of 
one  Mr.  P.  A.  Sarpy's  log  trading  house,  at  their 
village.  They  came  in  grand  toilet,  moving  in  their 
fantastic  attire  with  so  much  aplomb  and  genteel  mea- 
sure, that  the  stranger  found  it  difficult  not  to  believe 
them  high  born  gentlemen,  attending  a  costumed  ball. 
Their  aristocratically  thin  legs,  of  which  they  dis- 
played fully  the  usual  Indian  proportion,  aided  this 
illusion.  There  is  something  too  at  all  times  very 


58 

Mock-Indian  in  the  theatrical  French  millinery  tie  of 
the  Pottawatamie  turban ;  while  it  is  next  to  impos- 
sible for  a  sober  white  man,  at  first  sight,  to  believe 
that  the  red,  green,  black,  blue  and  yellow  cosmetics, 
with  which  he  sees  such  grave  personages  so  variously 
dotted,  diapered,  cancelled  and  arabesqued,  are  worn 
by  them  in  any  mood  but  one  of  the  deepest  and  most 
desperate  quizzing.  From  the  time  of  their  first  squat 
upon  the  ground,  to  the  final  breaking  up  of  the  council 
circle,  they  sustained  their  characters  with  equal  self- 
possession  and  address. 

I  will  not  take  it  upon  myself  to  describe  their 
order  of  ceremonies ;  indeed,  I  ought  not,  since  I  have 
never  been  able  to  view  the  habits  and  customs  of  our 
aborigines  in  any  other  light  than  that  of  a  reluctant 
and  sorrowful  subject  of  jest.  Besides,  in  this  instance, 
the  displays  of  pow  wow  and  eloquence  were  both  pro- 
bably moderated,  by  the  conduct  of  the  entire  transac- 
tion on  temperance  principles.  I  therefore  content 
myself  with  observing,  generally,  that  the  proceedings 
were  such  as  every  way  became  the  grandeur  of  the 
parties  interested,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  interests 
involved.  When  the  Red  Men  had  indulged  to  satiety 
in  tobacco  smoke  from  their  peace  pipes,  and  in  what 
they  love  still  better,  their  peculiar  metaphoric  rhodo- 
montade,  which,  beginning  with  the  celestial  bodies, 
and  coursing  downwards  over  the  grandest  sublunary 
objects,  always  managed  to  alight  at  last  on  their  Grand 


59 

Father  Polk,  and  the  tenderness  for  him  of  his  affec- 
tionate colored  children ;  all  the  solemn  funny  fellows 
present  who  played  the  part  of  Chiefs,  signed  formal 
articles  of  convention  with  their  unpronounceable 
names. 

The  renowned  chief,  Pied  Riche — he  was  surnamed 
Le  Clerc  on  account  of  his  remarkable  scholarship, — 
then  rose,  and  said : 

"  My  Mormon  Brethren, 

"  The  Pottawatamie  came  sad  and  tired  into  this 
"unhealthy  Missouri  Bottom,  not  many  years  back, 
"  when  he  was  taken  from  his  beautiful  country  beyond 
"  the  Mississippi,  which  had  abundant  game  and  timber 
"and  clear  water  everywhere.  Now  you  are  driven 
"away,  the  same,  from  your  lodges  and  lands  there, 
"and  the  graves  of  your  people.  So  we  have  both 
"  suffered.  We  must  help  one  another,  and  the  Great 
"  Spirit  will  help  us  both.  You  are  now  free  to  cut 
"  and  use  all  the  wood  you  may  wish.  You  can  make 
"  all  your  improvements,  and  live  on  any  part  of  our 
"  actual  land  not  occupied  by  us.  Because  one  suffers, 
"  and  does  not  deserve  it,  is  no  reason  he  shall  suffer 
"  always :  I  say.  We  may  live  to  see  all  right  yet. 
"  However,  if  we  do  not,  our  children  will. — Bon  Jour." 

And  thus  ended  the  pageant.  I  give  this  speech 
as  a  morsel  of  real  Indian.  It  was  recited  to  me  after 
the  Treaty  by  the  Pottawatamie  orator  in  French, 


60 

which  language  he  spoke  with  elegance.  Ban  Jour  is 
the  French,  Indian  and  English  Hail  and  Farewell  of 
the  Pottawatamies. 

The  other  entertainers  of  the  Mormons  at  this  time, 
the  Omahas,  or  Mahaws,  are  one  of  the  minor  tribes  of 
the  Grand  Prairie.  Their  Great  Father,  the  United 
States,  has  found  it  inconvenient  to  protect  so  remote 
a  dependency  against  the  overpowering  league  of  the 
Dahcotahs  or  Sioux,  and  has  judged  it  dangerous  at  the 
same  time  to  allow  them  to  protect  themselves  by  en- 
tering into  a  confederation  with  others.  Under  the  pres- 
sure of  this  paternal  embarrassment  and  restraint,  it  has 
therefore  happened  most  naturally,  that  this  tribe,  once 
a  powerful  and  valued  ally  of  ours,  has  been  reduced  to 
a  band  of  little  more  than  a  hundred  families ;  and  these, 
a  few  years  more,  will  entirely  extinguish.  When  I  was 
among  them,  they  were  so  ill-fed,  that  their  protruding 
high  cheek  bones  gave  them  the  air  of  a  tribe  of  con- 
sumptives. The  buffalo  had  left  them,  and  no  good 
ranges  lay  within  several  hundred  miles  reach.  Hardly 
any  other  game  found  cover  on  their  land.  What 
little  there  was,  they  were  short  of  ammunition  to  kill. 
Their  annuity  from  the  United  States  was  trifling. 
They  made  next  to  nothing  at  thieving.  They  had 
planted  some  corn  in  their  awkward  Indian  fashion, 
but  through  fear  of  ambtisji,  dared  not  venture  out  to 
harvest  it.  A  chief  resource  for  them,  the  winter  pre- 


61 

vious,  had  been  the  spoliation  of  their  neighbors,  the 
Prairie  Field  Mice. 

These  interesting  little  people,  more  industrious  and 
thrifty  than  the  Mahaws,  garner  up  in  the  neat  little 
cellars  of  their  underground  homes,  the  small  seeds  or 
beans  of  the  wood  pea  vine,  which  are  black  and  hard, 
but  quite  nutritious.  Gathering  them  one  by  one,  a 
single  Mouse  will  thus  collect  as  much  as  half  a  pint, 
which  before  the  cold  weather  sets  in,  he  piles  away  in 
a  dry  and  frost  proof  excavation,  cleverly  thatched  and 
covered  in.  The  Omaha  animal,  who,  like  enough, 
may  have  idled  during  all  the  season  the  Mouse  was 
amassing  his  toilsome  treasure,  finds  this  subterranean 
granary  to  give  out  a  certain  peculiar  cavernous  vibra- 
tion when  briskly  tapped  upon  above  the  ground.  He 
wanders  about,  therefore,  striking  with  a  wand  in  hope- 
ful spots :  and  as  soon  as  he  hears  the  hollow  sound  he 
knows,  unearths  the  little  retired  capitalist  along  with 
his  winter's  hope.  Mouse  wakes  up  from  his  nap  to 
starve,  and  Mahaw  swallows  several  relishing  mouth- 
fuls. 

But  the  Mouse  has  his  avenger  in  the  powerful 
Sioux,  who  wages  against  his  wretched  red  brother  an 
almost  bootless,  but  exterminating  warfare.  He  robs 
him  of  his  poor  human  peltry.  One  of  my  friends  was 
offered  for  sale  a  Sioux  scalp  of  Omaha,  "with  grey 
hair  nearly  as  long  as  a  white  horse's  tail." 


62 

The  pauper  Omahas  were  ready  to  solicit  as  a  favor 
the  residence  of  white  protectors  among  them.  The 
Mormons  harvested  and  stored  away  for  them  their 
crops  of  maize ;  with  all  their  own  poverty,  they  spared 
them  food  enough  besides,  from  time  to  time,  to  save 
them  from  absolutely  starving;  and  their  entrenched 
camp  to  the  north  of  the  Omaha  villages,  served  as  a 
sort  of  breakwater  between  them  and  the  destroying 
rush  of  the  Sioux. 

This  was  the  Head  Quarters  of  the  Mormon  Camps 
of  Israel.  The  miles  of  rich  prairie  enclosed  and  sowed 
with  the  grain  they  could  contrive  to  spare,  and  the 
houses,  stacks,  and  cattle  shelters,  had  the  seeming  of 
an  entire  county,  with  its  people  and  improvements 
transplanted  there  unbroken.  On  a  pretty  plateau 
overlooking  the  river,  they  built  more  than  seven  hun- 
dred houses  in  a  single  town,  neatly  laid  out  with 
highways  and  byways,  and  fortified  with  breast-work, 
stockade  and  block  houses.  It  had  too  its  place  of 
worship,  "  Tabernacle  of  the  Congregation,"  and  va- 
rious large  workshops,  and  mills  and  factories  provided 
with  water  power. 

They  had  no  camp  or  settlement  of  equal  size  in  the 
Pottawatamie  country.  There  was  less  to  apprehend 
here  from  Indian  invasion ;  and  the  people  scattered 
themselves  therefore  along  the  rivers  and  streams,  and 
in  the  timber  groves,  wherever  they  found  inviting 
localities  for  farming  operations.  In  this  way  many  of 


63 

them  acquired  what  have  since  proved  to  be  valuable 
pre-emption  rights. 

Upon  the  Pottawatamie  lands,  scattered  through  the 
border  regions  of  Missouri  and  Iowa,  in  the  Sauk  and 
Fox  country,  a  few  among  the  loways,  among  the  Pon- 
cahs  in  a  great  company  upon  the  banks  of  the  L'Eau 
qui  Coule,  or  Running  Water  River,  and  at  the  Omaha 
winter  quarters; — the  Mormons  sustained  themselves 
through  the  heavy  winter  of  1846-1847.  It  was  the 
severest  of  their  trials.  And  if  I  aimed  at  rhetorical 
effect,  I  would  be  bound  to  offer  you  a  minute  narra- 
tive of  its  progress,  as  a  sort  of  climax  to  my  history. 
But  I  have,  I  think,  given  you  enough  of  the  Mormons' 
sorrows.  We  are  all  of  us  content  to  sympathise  with 
a  certain  extent  of  suffering;  but  very  few  can  bear 
the  recurring  yet  scarcely  varied  narrative  of  another's 
distress  without  something  of  impatience.  The  world 
is  full  of  griefs,  and  we  cannot  afford  to  expend  too 
large  a  share  of  our  charity,  or  even  our  commiseration 
in  a  single  quarter. 

This  winter  was  the  turning  point  of  the  Mormon 
fortunes.  Those  who  lived  through  it  were  spared  to 
witness  the  gradual  return  of  better  times.  And  they 
now  liken  it  to  the  passing  of  a  dreary  night,  since 
which  they  have  watched  the  coming  of  a  steadily 
brightening  day. 

Before  the  grass  growth  of  1847,  a  body  of  one 
hundred  and  forty-three  picked  men,  with  seventy 


64 

wagons,  drawn  by  their  best  horses,  left  the  Omaha 
quarters,  under  the  command  of  the  members  of  the 
High  Council  who  had  wintered  there.  They  carried 
with  them  little  but  seed  and  farming  implements, 
their  aim  being  to  plant  spring  crops  at  their  ultimate 
destination.  They  relied  on  their  rifles  to  give  them 
food,  but  rarely  left  their  road  in  search  of  game.  They 
made  long  daily  marches,  and  moved  with  as  much 
rapidity  as  possible. 

Against  the  season  when  ordinary  emigration  passes 
the .  Missouri,  they  were  already  through  the  South 
Pass;  and  a  couple  of  short  day's  travel  beyond  it, 
entered  upon  the  more  arduous  portion  of  their  jour- 
ney. It  lay  in  earnest  through  the  Kocky  Mountains. 
They  turned  Fremont's  Peak,  Long's  Peak,  the  Twins, 
and  other  King  summits,  but  had  to  force  their  way  over 
other  mountains  of  the  rugged  Utah  Range,  sometimes 
following  the  stony  bed  of  torrents,  the  head  waters  of 
some  of  the  mightiest  rivers  of  our  continent,  and  some- 
times literally  cutting  their  road  through  heavy  and 
ragged  timber.  They  arrived  at  the  grand  basin  of 
the  Great  Salt  Lake,  much  exhausted,  but  without 
losing  a  man,  and  in  time  to  plant  for  a  partial  autumn 
harvest. 

Another  party  started  after  these  pioneers,  from  the 
Omaha  winter  quarters,  in  the  summer.  They  had  566 
wagons,  and  carried  large  quantities  of  grain,  which 
they  were  able  to  put  in  the  ground  before  it  froze. 


65 

The  same  season  also  these  were  joined  by  a  part  of 
the  Battalion  and  other  members  of  the  Church,  who 
came  eastward  from  California  and  the  Sandwich 
Islands.  Together,  they  fortified  themselves  strongly 
with  sunbrick  wall  and  blockhouses,  and  living  safely 
through  the  winter,  were  able  to  tend  crops  that  yielded 
ample  provision  for  the  ensuing  year. 

In  1848,  nearly  all  the  remaining  members  of  the 
Church  left  the  Missouri  country  in  a  succession  of 
powerful  bands,  invigorated  and  enriched  by  their  abun- 
dant harvests  there ;  and  that  year  saw  fully  established 
their  Commonwealth  of  the  New  Covenant,  the  future 
State  of  DESERET. 

I  may  not  undertake  to  describe  to  you  in  a  single 
lecture  the  Geography  of  Deseret,  and  its  Great  Basin. 
Were  I  to  consider  the  face  of  the  country,  its  military 
position,  or  its  climate  and  its  natural  productions ; 
each  head,  I  am  confident,  would  claim  more  time  than 
you  have  now  to  spare  me.  For  Deseret  is  emphatically 
a  New  Country;  new  in  its  own  characteristic  features, 
newer  still  in  its  bringing  together  within  its  limits  the 
most  inconsistent  peculiarities  of  other  countries.  I 
cannot  aptly  compare  it  to  any.  Descend  from  the 
mountains,  where  you  have  the  scenery  and  climate  of 
Switzerland,  to  seek  the  sky  of  your  choice  among  the 
many  climates  of  Italy,  and  you  may  find,  welling  out 
of  the  same  hills,  the  Freezing  Springs  of  Mexico  and 
the  Hot  Springs  of  Iceland,  both  together  coursing  their 


66 

way  to  the  Salt  Sea  of  Palestine  in  the  plain  below. 
The  pages  of  Malte  Brun  provide  me  with  a  less  truth- 
ful parallel  to  it  than  those  which  describe  the  happy 
Valley  of  Rasselas  or  the  Continent  of  Balnibarbi. 

Let  me  then  press  on  with  my  history,  during  the 
few  minutes  that  remain  for  me. 

Only  -two  events  have  occurred  to  menace  seriously 
the  establishment  at  Deseret :  the  first  threatened  to 
destroy  its  crops,  the  other  to  break  it  up  altogether. 

The  shores  of  the  Salt  Lake  are  infested  by  a  sort 
of  insect  pest,  which  claims  a  vile  resemblance  to  the 
locust  of  the  Syrian  Dead  Sea.  Wingless,  dumpy,  black, 
swollen-headed,  with  bulging  eyes  in  cases  like  goggles, 
mounted  upon  legs  of  steel  wire  and  clock-spring,  and 
with  a  general  personal  appearance  that  justified  the 
Mormons  in  comparing  him  to  a  cross  of  the  spider  on 
the  buffalo,  the  Deseret  cricket  comes  down  from  the 
mountains  at  a  certain  season  of  the  year,  in  voracious 
and  desolating  myriads.  It  was  just  at  this  season,  that 
the  first  crops  of  the  new  settlers  were  in  the  full  glory 
of  their  youthful  green.  The  assailants  could  not  be  re- 
pulsed. The  Mormons,  after  their  fashion,  prayed  and 
fought,  and  fought  and  prayed,  but  to  no  purpose.  The 
"  Black  Philistines"  mowed  their  way  even  with,  the 
ground,  leaving  it  as  if  touched  with  an  acid  or  burnt 
by  fire. 

But  an  unlocked  for  ally  came  to  the  rescue.     Vast 


67 

armies  of  bright  birds,  before  strangers  to  the  valley, 
hastened  across  the  lake  from  some  unknown  quarter,  and 
gorged  themselves  upon  the  well  fatted  enemy.  They 
were  snow  white,  with  little  heads  and  clear  dark  eyes, 
and  little  feet,  and  long  wings,  that  arched  in  flight  "  like 
an  angel's."  At  first  the  Mormons  thought  they  were  new 
enemies  to  plague  them ;  but  when  they  found  them 
hostile  •  only  to  the  locusts,  they  were  careful  not  to 
molest  them  in  their  friendly  office,  and  to  this  end 
declared  a  heavy  fine  against  all  who  should  kill  or 
annoy  them  with  firearms.  The  gulls  soon  grew  to 
be  tame  as  the  poultry,  and  the  delighted  little  children 
learned  to  call  them  their  pigeons.  They  disappeared 
every  evening  beyond  the  lake  ;  but,  returning  with  sun- 
rise, continued  their  welcome  visitings  till  the  crickets 
were  all  exterminated. 

This  curious  incident  recurred  the  following  year, 
with  this  variation,  that  in  1849,  the  gulls  came  earlier 
and  saved  the  wheat  crops  from  all  harm  whatever. 

A  severer  trial  than  the  visit  of  the  cricket-locusts 
threatened  Deseret  in  the  discovery  of  the  gold  of 
California.  It  was  due  to  a  party  of  the  Mormon 
battalion  recruited  on  the  Missouri,  who  on  their  way 
home,  found  employment  at  New  Helvetia.  They 
were  digging  a  mill  race  there,  and  threw  up  the  gold 
dust  with  their  shovels.  You  all  know  the  crazy  fever 
that  broke  out  as  soon  as  this  was  announced.  It  in- 
fected every  one  through  California.  Where  the  gold 


68 

was  discovered,  at  Suiter's  and  around,  the  standing 
grain  was  left  uncut ;  whites,  Indians,  and  mustees,  all 
set  them  to  gathering  gold,  every  other  labor  forsaken, 
as  if  the  first  comers  could  rob  the  casket  of  all  that  it 
contained.  The  disbanded  soldiers  came  to  the  valley ; 
they  showed  their  poor  companions  pieces  of  the 
yellow  treasure  they  had  gained ;  and  the  cry  was 
raised:  "To  California — To  the  Gold  of  Ophir,  o*ur 
brethren  have  discovered  !  To  California  !" 

Some  of  you  have  perhaps  come  across  the  half 
ironic  instruction  of  the  heads  of  the  Church,  to  the 
faithful  outside  the  Valley : 

x  "  THE  TRUE  USE  OF  GOLD  is  for  paving  streets,  covering 
"  houses,  and  making  culinary  dishes ;  and,  when  the 
"  Saints  shall  have  preached  the  Gospel,  raised  grain, 
"  and  built  up  cities  enough,  the  Lord  will  open  up  the 
"  way  for  a  supply  of  gold  to  the  perfect  satisfaction  of 
"  His  People.  Until  then,  let  them  not  be  over- 
"  anxious,  for  the  treasures  of  the  earth  are  in  the 
"  Lord's  storehouse,  and  he  will  open  the  doors  thereof 
"  when  and  where  he  pleases." — II.  Gen.  Epistle,  14. 

The  enlightened  virtue  of  their  rulers  saved  the 
people  and  the  fortunes  of  Deseret.  A  few  only  went 
away — and  they  were  asked  in  kindness  never  to  re- 
turn. The  rest  remained  to  be  healthy  and  happy, 
to  "raise  grain  and  build  up  cities." 

The  history  of  the  Mormons  has  ever  since  been  the 
unbroken  record  of  the  most  wonderful  prosperity.  It 


69 

has  looked,  as  though  the  elements  of  fortune,  obedient 
to  a  law  of  natural  re-action,  were  struggling  to  com- 
pensate to  them  their  undue  share  of  suffering.     They 
may  be  pardoned  for  deeming  it  miraculous.     But,  in 
truth,  the  economist  accounts  for  it  all,  who  explains  to 
us  the  speedy  recuperation  of  cities,  laid  in  ruin  by 
flood,  fire  and  earthquake.     During  its  years  of  trial, 
Mormon  labor  has  subsisted  on  insufficient  capital,  and 
under  many  trials — but  it  has  subsisted,  and  survives 
them  now,  as  intelligent  and  powerful  as  ever  it  was 
at  Nauvoo';  with  this   difference,  that  it  has  in   the 
meantime  been  educated  to  habits  of  unmatched  thrift, 
energy  and  endurance,  and  has  been  transplanted  to  a 
situation  where  it  is  in  every  respect  more  productive. 
Moreover,  during  all  the  period  of  their  journey,  while 
some  have  gained  by  practice  in  handicraft,  and  the 
experience  of  repeated  essays  at  their  various  halting- 
places,  the  minds  of  all  have  been  busy  framing  designs 
and  planning  the  improvements  they  have  since  found 
opportunity  to  execute. 

The  territory  of  the  Mormons  is  unequalled  as  a 
stock-raising  country.  The  finest  pastures  of  Lombardy 
are  not  more  estimable  than  those  on  the  east  side  of 
the  Utah  Lake  and  Jordan  River.  We  find  here  that 
cereal  anomaly,  the  Bunch  grass.  In  May,  when  the 
other  grasses  push,  this  fine  plant  dries  upon  its  stalk,  and 
becomes  a  light  yellow  straw,  full  of  flavor  and  nourish- 
ment. It  continues  thus,  through  what  are  the  dry 


70 

months  of  the  climate,  till  January,  and  then  starts 
with  a  vigorous  growth,  like  that  of  our  own  winter 
wheat  in  April,  which  keeps  on  till  the  return  of 
another  May.  Whether  as  straw  or  grass,  the  cattle 
fatten  on  it  the  year  round.  The  numerous  little  dells 
and  sheltered  spots  that  are  found  in  the  mountains, 
are  excellent  sheep-walks;  it  is  said  that  the  wool 
which  is  grown  upon  them  is  of  an  unusually  fine  pile 
and  soft  texture.  Hogs  fatten  on  a  succulent  bulb 
or  tuber,  called  the  Seacoe,  or  Seegose  Root,  which  I 
hope  will  soon  be  naturalized  with  us.  It  is  highly 
esteemed  as  a  table  vegetable  by  Mormons  and  Indians, 
and  I  remark  that  they  are  cultivating  it  with  interest 
at  the  French  Garden  of  Plants.  The  emigrant  poultry 
have  taken  the  best  of  care  of  each  other,  only  needing 
liberty  to  provide  themselves  with  every  other  blessing. 

The  Mormons  have  also  been  singularly  happy  in 
their  Indian  relations.  They  have  not  made  the  com- 
mon mistake  of  supposing  savages  insensible  to  courtesy 
of  demeanor;  but,  being  taught  by  their  religion  to 
regard  them  all  as  decayed  brethren,  have  always  treated 
the  silly  wicked  souls  with  kind-hearted  civility.  Though 
their  outlay  for  tobacco,  wampum  and  vermillion  has 
been  of.  the  very  smallest,  yet  they  have  never  failed 
to  purchase  what  goodwill  they  have  wanted. 

Hence,  it  happens,  that  in  their  Land  of  Promise, 
they  are  on  the  best  of  terms  with  all  the  Canaanites 
and  Hittites,  and  Hivites,  and  Amorites,  and  Gergash- 


71 

ites,  and  Perizzites,  and  Jebusites,  within  its  borders ; 
while  they  "  maintain  their  cherished  relations  of  amity 
with  the  rest  of  mankind/'  who,  in  their  case,  include  a 
sort  of  latest  remnant  of  the  primaeval  primates,  called 
the  Root  Diggers.  The  Diggers,  who  in  stature,  strength 
and  general  personal  appearance,  may  be  likened  to  a 
society  of  old  negro  women,  are  only  to  be  dreaded  for 
their  exceeding  ugliness.  The  tribes  that  rob  and  mur- 
der in  war,  and  otherwise  live  more  like  white  men, 
are  however  numerous  all  around  them. 

Fortunately,  upon  their  marauding  expeditions,  and 
in  matters  that  affect  their  freebooting  relations  gene- 
rally, they  all  obey  the  great  war  chief  of  the  tribe 
called  the  Utahs,  in  the  heart  of  whose  proper  territory 
the  Mormon  settlements  are  comprehended. 

If  accounts  are  true,  the  Utahs  are  brave  fellows. 
They  differ  obviously  from  the  deceased  nations,  to  whose 
estates  we  have  taken  it  upon  ourselves  to  administer. 
They  ride  strong,  well-limbed  Spanish  horses,  not  po- 
nies ;  bear  well  cut  rifles,  not  shot-guns,  across  their 
saddle-bows,  and  are  not  without  some  idea  of  military 
discipline.  They  carry  their  forays  far  into  the  Mexi- 
can States,  laying  the  inhabitants  under  contribution, 
and  taking  captive  persons  of  condition,  whom  they  hold 
to  ransom.  They  are,  as  yet  at  least,  little  given  to 
drink ;  some  of  them  manifest  considerable  desire  to 
acquire  useful  knowledge ;  and  they  are  attached  to 
their  own  infidel  notions  of  religion,  making  long  jour- 


72 

neys  to  the  ancient  cities  of  the  Colorado,  to  worship 
among  the  ruined  temples  there.  The  Soldan  of  these 
red  Paynims,  too,  their  great  war  chief,  is  not  without 
his  knightly  graces.  According  to  some  of  the  Mormons, 
he  is  the  paragon  of  Indians.  His  name,  translated 
to  diminish  its  excellence  as  an  exercise  in  Prosody,  is 
Walker.  He  is  a  fine  figure  of  a  man,  in  the  prime  of  life. 
He  excels  in  various  manly  exercises,  is  a  crack  shot, 
a  rough  rider,  and  a  great  judge  of  horse  flesh. 

He  is  besides  very  clever,  in  our  sense  of  the  word. 
He  is  a  peculiarly  eloquent  master  of  the  graceful  alpha- 
bet of  pantomime,  which  stranger  tribes  employ  to  com- 
municate with  one  another.  He  has  picked  up  some 
English,  and  is  familiar  with  Spanish  and  several  Indian 
tongues.  He  rather  affects  the  fine  gentleman.  When 
it  is  his  pleasure  to  extend  his  riding  excursions  into 
Mexico,  to  inflict  or  threaten  outrage,  or  to  receive  the 
instalments  of  his  black  mail  salary,  he  will  take  of- 
fence if  the  poor  people  there  fail  to  kill  their  fattest 
beeves,  and  adopt  other  measures  to  show  him  obsequi- 
ous and  distinguished  attention.  He  has  more  than  one 
black-eyed  mistress  there,  according  to  his  own  account, 
to  whom  he  makes  love  in  her  own  language.  His 
dress  is  a  full  suit  of  the  richest  broadcloth,  generally 
brown,  cut  in  European  fashion,  with  a  shining  beaver 
hat,  and  fine  cambric  shirt.  To  these,  he  adds  his  own 
gaudy  Indian  trimmings,  and  in  this  way  contrives, 
they  say,  to  look  superbly,  when  he  rides  at  the  head  of 


73 

his  troop,  whose  richly  caparisoned  horses,  with  their 
embroidered  saddles  and  harness,  shine  and  tinkle  as 
they  prance  under  their  weight  of  gay  metal  ornaments. 

With  all  his  wild  cat  fierceness,  Walker  is  perfectly 
velvet-pawed  to  the  Mormons.  There  is  a  queer  story 
about  his  being  influenced  in  their  favor,  by  a  dream. 
It  is  the  fact,  that  from  the  first,  he  has  received  the 
Mormon  exiles  into  his  kingdom,  with  a  generosity, 
that  in  its  limited  sphere,  transcends  that  of  the  Grand 
Monarch  to  the  English  Jacobites.  He  rejoices  to  give 
them  the  information  they  want  about  the  character 
of  the  country  under  his  rule,  advises  with  them  as 
to  the  advantages  of  particular  localities,  and  where- 
ever  they  choose  to  make  their  settlements,  guarantees 
them  personal  safety  and  immunity  from  depredation. 

From  the  first,  therefore,  the  Mormons  have  had 
little  or  nothing  to  do  in  Deseret,  but  attend  to  their 
mechanical  and  strictly  agricultural  pursuits.  They 
have  made  several  successful  settlements ;  the  farthest 
North,  at  what  they  term  Brownsville,  is  about  forty 
miles,  and  the  farthest  South,  in  a  valley  called  the 
Sanpeech,  200  miles,  from  that  first  formed.  A  dupli- 
cate of  the  Lake  Tiberias,  or  Genesareth,  empties  its 
waters  into  the  innocent  Dead  Sea  of  Deseret,  by  a 
fine  river,  to  which  the  Mormons  have  given  the  name 
— it  was  impossible  to  give  it  any  other — of  the  West- 
ern Jordan. 

It  was  on  the  right  bank  of  this  stream,  at  a  choice 


74 

spot  upon  a  rich  table  land  traversed  by  a  great  com- 
pany of  exhaustless  streams  falling  from  the  highlands, 
that  the  Pioneer  band  of  Mormons,  coming  out  of  the 
mountains  in  the  night,  pitched  their  first  camp  in  the 
Valley,  and  consecrated  the  ground.  Curiously  enough, 
this  very  spot  proved  the  most  favorable  site  for  their 
chief  settlement,  and  after  exploring  the  whole  country, 
they  have  founded  on  it  their  city  of  the  New  Hieru- 
salem.  Its  houses  are  spread  to  command  as  much  as 
possible  the  farms,  which  are  laid  out  in  Wards  or  Can- 
tons, with  a  common  fence  to  each  Ward.  The  farms 
in  wheat  already  cover  a  space,  greater  than  the  District 
of  Columbia,  over  all  of  which  they  have  completed 
the  canals,  and  other  arrangements  for  bountiful  irri- 
gation, after  the  manner  of  the  cultivators  of  the  East. 
The  houses  are  distributed  over  an  area  nearly  as  great 
as  the  City  of  New  York. 

They  have  little  thought  as  yet  of  luxury  in  their 
public  buildings.  But  they  will  soon  have  nearly  com- 
pleted a  large  common  public  store-house  and  granary, 
and  a  great  sized  public  bath-house.  One  of  the  many 
wonderful  thermal  springs  of  the  valley,  a  white  sul- 
phur water  of  the  temperature  of  102°  Fahrenheit,  with 
a  head  "the  thickness  of  a  man's  body,"  they  have 
already  brought  into  the  town  for  this  purpose ;  and  all 
have  learned  the  habit  of  indulging  in  it.  They  have 
besides  a  yellow  brick  meeting-house,  100  feet  by  60, 
in  which  they  gather  on  Sundays  and  in  the  week-day 


75 

evenings.  But  this  is  only  a  temporary  structure. 
They  have  reserved  a  summit  level  in  the  heart  of  the 
city,  for  the  site  of  a  Temple  far  superior  to  that  of 
Nauvoo3  which,  in  the  days  of  their  fukire  wealth  and 
power,  is  to  be  the  landmark  of  the  Basin  and  goal  of 
future  pilgrims. 

They  mean  to  seek  no  other  resting-place.  After 
pitching  camps  enough  to  exhaust  many  times  over  the 
chapter  of  names  in  33d  Numbers,  they  have  at  last 
come  to  their  Promised  Land,  and,  "  behold,  it  is  a 
good  land  and  large,  and  flowing  with  milk  and  honey:" 
and  here  again  for  them,  as  at  Nauvoo,  the  forge  smokes 
and  the  anvil  rings,  and  whirring  wheels  go  round; 
again  has  returned  the  merry  sport  of  childhood,  and 
the  evening  quiet  of  old  age,  and  again  dear  house-pet 
flowers  bloom  in  garden  plots  round  happy  homes. 

It  is  to  these  homes,  in  the  heart  of  our  American 
Alps,  like  the  holy  people  of  the  Grand  Saint  Bernard, 
they  hold  out  their  welcome  to  the  passing  traveller. 
Some  of  you  have  probably  seen  in  the  St.  Louis  papers, 
the  repeated  votes  of  thanks  to  them  of  companies  of 
emigrants  to  California.  These  are  often  reduced  to 
great  straights  after  passing  Fort  Laramie,  and  turn 
aside  to  seek  the  Salt  Lake  Colony  in  pitiable  plights 
of  fatigue  and  destitution.  The  road,  after  leaving  the 
Oregon  trace,  is  one  of  increasing  difficulty,  and  when 
the  last  mountain  has  been  crossed,  passes  along  the 
bottom  of  a  deep  Canon,  whose  scenery  is  of  an  almost 


76 

terrific  gloom.  It  is  a  defile  that  I  trust  no  Mormon 
Martin  Hofer  of  this  Western  Tyrol  will  be  called  to  con- 
secrate to  liberty  with  blood.  At  every  turn  the  over- 
hanging cliffs  threaten  to  break  down  upon  the  little 
torrent  river  that  has  worn  its  way  at  their  base.  Indeed, 
the  narrow  ravine  is  so  serrated  by  this  stream,  that  the 
road  crosses  it  from  one  side  to  the  other,  something  like 
forty  times  in  the  last  five  miles.  At  the  end  of  the 
ravine,  the  emigrant  comes  abruptly  out  of  the  dark  pass 
into  the  lighted  valley  on  an  even  bench  or  terrace  of 
its  upper  table  land.  No  wonder  if  he  loses  his  self- 
control  here.  A  ravishing  panoramic  landscape  opens 
out  below  him,  blue,  and  green,  and  gold,  and  pearl ;  a 
great  sea  with  hilly  islands,  rivers,  a  lake,  and  broad 
sheets  of  grassy  plain,  all  set,  as  in  a  silver  chased  cup, 
within  mountains  whose  peaks  of  perpetual  snow  are 
burnished  by  a  dazzling  sun.  It  is  less  these,  however, 
than  the  foreground  of  old-country  farms,  with  their 
stacks  and  thatchings  and  stock,  and  the  central  city, 
smoking  from  its  chimneys  and  swarming  with  working 
inhabitants,  that  tries  the  men  of  fatigue  broken  nerves. 
The  '  Californeys'  scream,  they  sing,  they  give  three 
cheers,  and  do  not  count  them,  a  few  have  prayed; 
more  swear,  some  fall  on  their  faces  and  cry  outright. 
News  arrived  a  few  days  since  from  a  poor  townsman  of 
ours,  a  journeyman  saddler,  that  used  to  work  up  Mar- 
ket street  beyond  Broad,  by  name  Gillian,  who  sought  the 
valley,  his  cattle  given  out,  and  himself  broken  down  and 


77 

half  heart-broken: — The  recluse  Mormons  fed  and  housed 
him  and  his  party,  and  he  made  his  way  through  to  the 
gold  diggings  with  restored  health  and  strength.  To 
Gillian's  credit  for  manhood,  should  perhaps  be  cited 
his  own  allegation,  that  he  first  whistled  through  his 
fingers  various  popular  nocturnal,  street,  circus,  and 
theatre  calls ;  but  it  is  certain  that,  when  my  tidings 
speak  of  him,  which  was  when  he  was  afterwards  hos- 
pitably entreated  by  a  Mormon,  whom  he  knew  ten 
years  ago  as  one  of  our  Chester  County  farmers,  he 
was  completely  dissolved  into  something  not  far  from 
the  hysterics,  and  wept  on  till  the  tears  ran  down  his 
dusty  beard. 

Several  hundred  emigrants,  in  more  or  less  distress, 
received  gratuitous  assistance  last  year  from  the  Mor- 
mons. Bancroft  i 

Their  community  must  go  on  thriving.  They  are  to 
be  the  chief  workers  and  contractors  upon  "  Whitney's 
Railroad,"  or  whatever  scheme  is  to  unite  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  by  way  of  the  South  Pass ;  and  their  valley 
must  be  its  central  station.  They  have  already  raised  a 
"  Perpetual  Fund"  for  "  the  final  fulfilment  of  the  cove- 
nant made  by  the  Saints  in  the  Temple  at  Nauvoo," 
which  "  is  not  to  cease  till  all  the  poor  are  brought  to  the 
valley."  All  the  poor  still  lingering  behind,  will  be 
brought  there  :  so  at  an  early  period  will  the  fifty  thou- 
sand communicants,  the  Church  already  numbers  in 
Great  Britain,  with  all  the  other  "  increase  among  the 


78 

Gentiles."  Their  place  of  rendezvous  will  be  upon  what 
were  formerly  the  Pottawatamie  lands.  The  interests 
of  this  Stake  have  been  admirably  cared  for.  It  now 
comprises  the  thriving  counties  of  "  Fremont"  and  "  Pot- 
tawatamie/' in  which  the  Mormons  still  number  a  ma- 
jority of  the  inhabitants.  Their  chief  town  is  growing 
rapidly,  already  boasting  over  three  thousand  inhabit- 
ants, with  nineteen  large  merchants'  stores,  the  mail 
lines  and  five  regular  steam  packets  running  to  it,  and 
other  western  evidences  of  prosperity;  besides  a  fine 
Music  Hall  and  public  buildings,  and  the  printing  esta- 
blishment of  a  very  ably  edited  newspaper,  "  The  Fron- 
tier Guardian." 

It  is  probably  the  best  station  on  the  Missouri  for  com- 
mencing the  overland  journey  to  Oregon  and  California; 
as  travellers  can  follow  directly  from  it  the  Mormon 
road,  which,  in  addition  to  other  advantages,  proves  to 
be  more  salubrious  than  those  to  the  south  of  it.  Large 
numbers  are  expected  to  arrive  at  this  point  from  Eng- 
land during  the  present  spring,  on  their  way  to  the 
Salt  Lake.  They  will  repay  their  welcome;  for  every 
working  person  gained  to  the  hive  of  their  "  Honey 
State"  counts  as  added  wealth.  So  far,  the  Mormons 
write  in  congratulation,  that  they  have  not  among 
them  "  a  single  loafer  rich  or  poor,  idle  gentleman  or 
lazy  vagabond."  They  are  no  Communists ;  but  their 
experience  has  taught  them  the  gain  of  joint  stock  to 
capital,  and  combination  to  labor, — perhaps  something 


79 

more,  for  I  remark  they  have  recently  made  arrange- 
ments to  "  classify  their  mechanics/'  which  is  probably 
a  step  in  the  right  direction.     They  will  be  successful 
manufacturers,  for  their  vigorous  land-locked  industry 
cannot  be  tampered  with  by  protection.     They  have 
no  gold — they  have  not  hunted  for  it;  but  they  have 
found  wealth  of  other  valuable  minerals ;  rock  salt  enough 
to  do  the  curing  of  the  world, — "  We  '11  salt  the  Union 
for  you,"  they  write,  "  if  you  can't  preserve  it  in  any 
other  way," — perhaps  coal,  excellent  ores  of  iron  every- 
where.    They  are  near  enough,  however,  to  the  Cali- 
fornian   Sierra,  to  be  the  chief  quartermasters  of  its 
miners;  and  they  will  dig  their  own  gold  in  their  un- 
limited fields  of  admirably  fertile  land.     I  should  only 
invite  your  incredulity,  and  the  disgust  of  the  Horti- 
cultural Society,  by  giving  you  certain  measurements 
of  mammoth  beets,  turnips,  pumpkins,  and  garden  vege- 
tables, in  my  possession.    In  that  country  where  stock 
thrives  care  free,  where  a  poor  man's  32  potatoes  saved 
can  return  him  18  bushels,  and  2J  bushels  of  wheat 
sown  yield  350  bushels  in  a  season;  or  where  an  average 
crop  of  wheat  on  irrigated  lands  is  50  bushels  to  the 
acre;  the  farmer's  part  is  hardly  to  be  despised.     Cer- 
tainly it  will  not  be  under  a  continuance  of  the  present 
prices  current  of  the  region, — wheat  at  $4  the  bushel, 
and  flour  $12  the  hundred,  with  a  ready  market. 

The  recent  letters  from  Deseret  interest  me  in  one 
thing  more.     They  are  eloquent  in  describing  the  anni- 


80 

versary  of  the  Pioneers'  arrival  in  the  Valley.  It  was 
the  24th  of  July,  and  they  have  ordained  that  that 
day  shall  be  commemorated  in  future,  like  our  21st  of 
December,  as  their  Forefather's  Day.  The  noble 
Walker  attended  as  an  invited  guest,  with  two  hundred 
of  his  best  dressed  mounted  cavaliers,  who  stacked  their 
guns  and  took  up  their  places  at  the  ceremonies  and 
banquet,  with  the  quiet  precision  of  soldiers  marched 
to  mass.  The  Great  Band  was  there  too,  that  had 
helped  their  humble  hymns  through  all  the  wander- 
ings of  the  Wilderness.  Through  the  many  trying 
marches  of  1846,  through  the  fierce  winter  ordeal  that 
followed,  and  the  long  journey  after  over  plain  and 
mountain,  it  had  gone  unbroken,  without  the  loss  of 
any  of  its  members.  As  they  set  out  from  England,  and 
as  they  set  out  from  Illinois,  so  they  all  came  into  the 
valley  together,  and  together  sounded  the  first  glad 
notes  of  triumph  when  the  Salt  Lake  City  was  founded. 
It  was  their  right  to  lead  the  psalm  of  praise.  Anthem, 
song  and  dance,  all  the  innocent  and  thankful  frolic 
of  the  day  owed  them  its  chief  zest.  "  They  never  were 
in  finer  key."  The  people  felt  their  sorrows  ended.  FAR 
WEST,  their  old  settlement  in  Missouri,  and  NAUVOO  ; 
with  their  wealth  and  ease,  like  "  Pithom  and  Ramses, 
treasure  cities  built  for  Pharaoh,"  went  awhile  forgotten. 
Less  than  four  years  had  restored  them  every  comfort 
that  they  needed.  Their  entertainment,  the  contribution 
of  all,  I  have  no  doubt  was  really  sumptuous.  It  was 


81 

spread  on  broad  buffet  tables  about  1400  feet  in  length, 
at  which  they  took  their  seats  by  turns,  while  they  kept 
them  heaped  with  ornamented  delicacies.  "  Butter  of 
kine,  and  milk,  with  fat  of  lambs,  with  the  fat  of  kid- 
neys of  wheat ;"  "  and  the  cucumbers,  and  the  melons, 
and  the  leeks,  and  the  onions,  and  the  garlic,  and  the 
remembered  fish  which  we  did  eat  in  Egypt  freely" — 
they  seem  unable  to  dilate  with  too  much  pride  upon 
the  show  it  made. 

"  To  behold  the  tables,"  says  one,  that  I  quote  from 
literally. 

To  behold  them  "  filling  the  Bowery  and  all  adjoining 
"  grounds,  loaded  with  all  luxuries  of  the  fields  and  gardens 
"  and  nearly  all  the  varieties  that  any  vegetable  market 
"  in  the  world  could  produce,  and  to  see  the  seats  around 
"  those  tables  filled  and  refilled  by  a  people  who  had 
"  been  deprived  of  those  luxuries  for  years  by  the  cruel 
"  hand  of  oppression,  and  freely  offering  seats  to  every 
-stranger  within  their  borders;  and  this,  too,  in  the 
"  Valley  of  the  Mountains,  over  a  thousand  miles  from 
"  civilization,  where,  two  years  before,  naught  was  to 
"  be  found  save  the  wild  root  of  the  prairie  and  the 
"mountain  cricket;  was  a  theme  of  unbounded  thanks- 
"  giving  and  praise  to  the  Giver  of  all  Good,  as  the 
"  dawning  of  a  day  when  the  Children  of  the  Kingdom 
"  can  sit  under  their  own  vines  and  fig-trees,  and  in- 
"  habit  their  own  houses,  having  none  to  make  them 
a  afraid.  JMay  the  time  be  hastened  when  the  scattered 


82 

"Israel  may  partake  of  such  like  banquets  from  the 
"  gardens  of  Joseph  !"* 

I  have  gone  over  the  work  I  assigned  myself  when  I 
accepted  your  Committee's  invitation,  as  fully  as  I  could 
do  without  trespassing  too  largely  upon  your  courteous 
patience.  But  I  should  do  wrong  to  conclude  my  lec- 
ture without  declaring  in  succinct  and  definite  terms, 
the  opinions  I  have  formed  and  entertain  of  the  Mormon 
people.  The  libels,  of  which  they  have  been  made  the 
subject,  make  this  a  simple  act  of  justice.  Perhaps, 
too,  my  opinion,  even  with  those  who  know  me  as  you 
do,  will  better  answer  its  end  following  after  the  narra- 
tive I  have  given. 

I  have  spoken  to  you  of  a  people ;  whose  industry 
had  made  them  rich,  and  gathered  around  them  all  the 
comforts,  and  not  a  few  of  the  luxuries  of  refined  life  ; 
expelled  by  lawless  force  into  the  Wilderness ;  seeking 
an  untried  home  far  away  from  the  scenes  which  their 
previous  life  had  endeared  to  them ;  moving  onward, 
destitute,  hunger-sickened,  and  sinking  with  disease ; 
bearing  along  with  them  their  wives  and  children,  the 
aged,  and  the  poor,  and  the  decrepid ;  renewing  daily 
on  their  march,  the  offices  of  devotion,  the  ties  of  family 
and  friendship,  and  charity;  sharing  necessities,  and 
braving  dangers  together,  cheerful  in  the  midst  of  want 

*  Letter  of  the  Presidency,  Great  Salt  Lake  City,  Oct.  12,  1849. 


83 

and  trial,  and  persevering  until  they  triumphed.  I 
have  told,  or  tried  to  tell  you,  of  men,  who  when  me- 
naced by  famine,  and  in  the  midst  of  pestilence,  with 
every  energy  taxed  by  the  urgency  of  the  hour,  were 
building  roads  and  bridges,  laying  out  villages,  and  plant- 
ing cornfields,  for  the  stranger  who  might  come  after 
them,  their  kinsman  only  by  a  common  humanity,  and 
peradventure  a  common  suffering, — of  men,  who  have 
renewed  their  prosperity  in  the  homes  they  have  founded 
in  the  desert, — and  who,  in  their  new  built  city,  walled 
round  by  mountains  like  a  fortress,  are  extending  pious 
hospitalities  to  the  destitute  emigrants  from  our  frontier 
lines, — of  men  who,  far  removed  from  the  restraints  of 
law,  obeyed  it  from  choice,  or  found  in  the  recesses  of 
their  religion,  something  not  inconsistent  with  human 
laws,  but  far  more  controlling;  and  who  are  now 
soliciting  from  the  government  o'f  the  United  States, 
not  indemnity, — for  the  appeal  would  be  hopeless,  and 
they  know  it — not  protection,  for  they  now  have  no 
need  of  it, — but  that  identity  of  political  institutions 
and  that  community  of  laws  with  the  rest  of  us,  which 
was  confessedly  their  birthright  when  they  were  driven 
beyond  our  borders. 

I  said  I  would  give  you  the  opinion  I  formed  of  the 
Mormons :  you  may  deduce  it  for  yourselves  from  these 
facts.  But  I  will  add  that  I  have  not  yet  heard  the 
single  charge  against  them  as  a  Community,  against 
their  habitual  purity  of  life,  their  integrity  of  dealing, 


84 

their  toleration  of  religious  differences  in  opinion,  their 
regard  for  the  laws,  or  their  devotion  to  the  constitu- 
tional government  under  which  we  live,  that  I  do  not 
from  my  own  observation,  or  the  testimony  of  others, 
know  to  be  unfounded. 


THE   END. 


THE  MORMONS. 


<? 


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